Lessons from the Ice Queen
by ExiXIII
Summary: Anna Summerfield needed help with academics, so she came to Elsa Andersen - the cold and antisocial girl who is among the school's smartest - for help for she has no one else to turn to. It all started with a strictly professional relationship between tutor and tutee that gradually escalates into friendship and finally into something more than just best friends.
1. Chapter 1

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER I -=-=-=-**

* * *

The clock that hung above the whiteboard in the front of the class read 3:05. Only ten minutes left and Anna can finally leave this place.

On the whiteboard were diagrams of three-dimensional figures, and their teacher, Mr. Pabbie, was showing them how to use formulas to derive the surface area and volume of these figures. He was teaching the class about operations on square matrices, and Anna was starting to get confused. He was writing down so many numbers and operations since he liked to show his students his complete step-by-step solutions that she just lost track of his process and just stared at the unimaginably long solutions. How he got to the answer made no sense to her.

When he started to venture into multiplication of matrices, she got _even _more confused. It involved so many multiplications and additions that just staring at the three-by-three matrix made her lose her train of thought. He multiplied rows with columns and she lost track of his process on a lot of occasions. The other operations like matrix addition and matrix subtraction were pieces of cake, but it was matrix multiplication that really made her head spin.

"Does everyone understand?" Pabbie said. That snapped her out of her stupor. She barely even understood the first thing about multiplying matrices. She heard the class respond with a collective _yes._ Pabbie nodded. "Very well. Everyone prepare for a test next week." The clock hit 3:15 and the bell rang. Everyone in the class packed their things and started going out of the classroom.

Anna was about to do the same. She stood from her seat and was heading toward the door when Mr. Pabbie stopped her. "Ms. Summerfield. I need to talk to you." _Oh crap._ When a teacher says those words, and in a serious, urgent tone like he did, that usually didn't mean well.

"Yes, Mr. Pabbie?" Anna responded, nearly stammering as she said it. She turned her back to the door to face her teacher. He was a stout, elderly man with a short stature and a wild, straw-colored mane. He motioned to a chair in the front row, and she nervously sat on it. She tapped her feet, anxious and nervous as she anticipated what he was going to say.

"It's about your grades in this class." Anna cringed. _Have I done badly? What did I do wrong? Oh gods, am I going to _fail? "No, you are not going to fail," said the elderly teacher as if he was reading her thoughts. Anna heaved a sigh of relief. "Your grades are relatively average in this class's standards."

"Then why do you need to talk to me about my grades?"

He leaned forward. "You're doing an average job here, yes, but I can see that in the latest topics, you're having a bit of difficulty. Your quizzes this month have a lower average score than those of last month. These difficulties could have a drastic effect on your grades."

"What do you suggest I do?"

He settled back on his seat. "I suggest you find someone to teach you. A tutor."

"A tutor?" Anna replied incredulously. "Where would I find a tutor?"

Mr. Pabbie looked to someone behind Anna. She had to look over her shoulder to follow his gaze. There was only one person left in the room at that time. A girl with lustrous, platinum-blonde hair that was styled in an intricate braid, her wavy bangs slicked over the back of her head. Her skin was pale with a light blush of rosy pink. Light, almost invisible freckles were sprinkled along the bridge of her nose, and her eyes were a mesmerizing shade of arctic blue. She was hunched over her desk, her pen flying over the pages of her notebook as she scribbled down the notes that Mr. Pabbie had written on the board.

Anna racked her brains, trying to remember the blonde-haired girl's name. _Elsa Andersen. _Her several titles that have been appointed to her by the many people in the school popped into her head as well. She was referred to as '_Pythagoras II_' by the math club for her great ability in mathematics. She was referred to as '_The Blonde Ghost_' for being so quiet; it was like she wasn't there. And she was referred to as '_The Ice Queen_' by almost everyone in the school for her cold and stoic demeanor.

"You can get her to be your tutor." The teacher suggested.

"Her? Elsa?"

"Yes. She is among the best in this school when it comes to mathematics. She can be a fine tutor."

"Are you sure? Because from what I've been told, she can be…"

"Cold? Antisocial? Maybe. You just have to find a way to convince her."

"Isn't there another way?"

"You can always do self-study."

"I'm not really good at self-study…"

"Then you need a tutor."

"Isn't there anyone else? Like someone in the math club?"

"The math club already has their hands full. They're no longer accepting tutees."

Elsa finished writing and she closed her notebook. She put her pen in a pencil case and put it, along with her notebook and math book, in her backpack. She then shouldered her backpack and stood up and left through the door. Anna watched Elsa as she left the classroom, her eyes trained on her braid that swung from side to side in a mesmerizing fashion.

"Like I said," he continued after Elsa left through the door, "there is going to be a big test next week, and it will comprise a significant portion of a student's overall grade for this grading period. You're going to need to study, or else you may fail." He stood up and picked up the pile of books and papers that he always carries around. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to go. I still have errands to run."

Anna shouldered her backpack and stood up as well and followed her diminutive teacher out the door. He closed the door behind him and went down the aisle towards the teacher's lounge, the opposite way from where Anna was heading to – the school's main entrance.

The light of the winter's afternoon sun shone upon the snow, making it glisten with a faint yellow and orange glow. Elsa was treading through the snow, a satisfied half-smile on her face. Anna watched Elsa stomp lightly and sometimes even kick the snow as she went down the snow-covered sidewalk.

She started to walk towards her. "Hey Elsa!" She called out as she headed for the blonde girl. The smile on her face disappeared and was replaced by a cold, emotionless mask and she continued walking down the sidewalk with a constant pace. "Elsa! Hey!" Anna called out again. She was now walking faster to shorten the distance between her and the girl her teacher recommended to be her tutor. She finally caught up with her and she made her speed equal to Elsa's. She didn't even glance at her direction.

"Elsa." She reached out and touched her arm. She went rigid for a while, but without breaking her stride. "I need you to help me out with something." Still no response. She was still straight-faced, her eyes not deviating to look at anything besides the path ahead of her. Anna poked Elsa's arm. No response. She poked it again.

And again. And again. And again.

Elsa stopped walking and faced her. "What?" She finally answered through gritted teeth, but her face was still straight and expressionless.

"I need you to tutor me with math, if that's okay with you…" Anna answered in a small tone. She could feel Elsa's beautiful icy blue eyes boring into her soul.

"No." Elsa answered flatly and continued walking down the snow-coated sidewalk without another word.

"Oh, come on! I really need help with math…"

"Do it yourself. I don't do tutorials," replied Elsa with a monotonous tone of voice.

"I'll pay you! I'll give you something nice! What can I do to convince you?"

Elsa kept walking. There was now a considerable amount of distance between her and Anna. Soon, Elsa turned a corner and disappeared from sight, leaving Anna alone and with no more options. She really needed a tutor since she was no good at self-study, and Pabbie told her that she was her only option.

_I'll just try again tomorrow, and with a different approach…_ Anna thought to herself as she shrugged, turned around, and headed home.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER I -=-=-=-**


	2. Chapter 2

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER II -=-=-=-**

* * *

Anna was walking down the school's hallway, on her way to the classroom from the comfort room.

Just as she was headed for her classroom, she met her math teacher, Mr. Pabbie, in the hallway. "Ms. Summerfield," he began, and Anna already knew the question he was going to ask before he even asked it. "Have you found a tutor yet?"

She'd been expecting that. She shook her head slowly. "Well, no. Elsa's being difficult…"

"I see." He replied and nodded his head in understanding. "You need only find a way to convince her."

"How could I do that?" She ran over her options in her head. Bribing Elsa with money or gifts didn't work, and she couldn't think of any other way to convince her to take her under her wing.

He shrugged. "I have no idea. Bribery won't work, so you'll have to think of some other way." He continued like he was reading her mind. _How did he know I tried to bribe her? _"And don't ponder on that too much. I've seen you try to offer her money or gifts in exchange."

Anna sighed with relief. "I thought you were reading my mind or something." And then she raised her eyebrow skeptically as a question formed in her mind. "Wait. _Are_ you a _psychic?_"

"No." He answered plainly, but with a faint bit of humor in his voice. He looked like he was trying to hold back a chuckle.

"But you knew that I was panicking over failing yesterday."

"I could read the expressions on your face. You looked jittery. Besides, any student will think that when a teacher wants to talk to them about grades and such."

"Good point." Another question formed in her mind, and she slowly and shyly worded her query. "Can't you be my tutor?"

"As you can plainly see," he held out the pile of books and papers he always carried around, "I am really busy. I'm afraid I have no time to tutor anyone." He continued walking down the hall. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a class to get to. You should probably be going as well, Ms. Summerfield, the bell's about to ring."

She glanced at her wristwatch. It read 11:27 AM. Only three minutes until the bell rings. She quickened her pace and headed for the classroom. It was like it always was when no teacher was around. People throwing stuff around, some were roaming around the room, some were talking amongst themselves, and some were howling random animal noises.

She took her assigned seat, and was grateful that she sat there since Elsa was sitting directly behind her. She turned around in her seat to face the blonde-haired girl. Elsa's eyes were glued to a book in her hands, and Anna watched as the blonde's deep, arctic blue eyes moved left and right as they read the words on the pages. She looked so cool and calm, as if the noises of the chaotic classroom didn't bother her one bit.

"Hey, Elsa." Anna prompted to get the blonde's attention. Her eyes stayed on her book. "Elsa," Anna tried again. "Elsa. Elsa, yoo-hoo!"

Without moving any part of her body, Elsa's eyes looked up to meet Anna's gaze. Elsa didn't even make a move or a sound, but her icy glare was intimidating and Anna felt nervous as chills went down her spine. She gulped audibly before phrasing her question. "Could you help me with math?"

Elsa's eyes returned to her book. "Oh, come on. Please?" Anna pleaded, but the blonde remained as stoic as ever. "Please?"

"Are you always this obnoxious?" Elsa replied in her usual monotone without her eyes leaving her book.

"_Please_?" Anna continued as she tried to pull off her best puppy-dog-eyes look which she knew wasn't going to work on Elsa, but it was worth a shot. "_Pretty _please with chocolate-covered cherries on top?"

"No." Elsa replied flatly without looking up. She put her book into her bag which was beside her desk, and retrieved her notebook.

"TEACHER'S HERE!" One of their classmates exclaimed, and the entire class fell silent for a short moment before they started to scramble and rush to their positions. Their classmates rushed to their seats, and in seconds, they were all seated at their assigned seats. They were so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. It was as if nothing happened.

Their teacher, Mr. Ray, an Australian man in his mid-thirties with a jolly disposition, entered the room, a Physics book under his arm. He adjusted his dark blue, spotted necktie and cleared his throat. "Okay class, I have a surprise for you!" He held out a pile of papers. "And by surprise I mean, _Surprise Quiz!_" The entire class groaned – except Elsa, who remained calm and cool-headed as ever – as Mr. Ray distributed the papers.

Most of the class had a bit of difficulty in facing the questions on wave frequency, velocity, and wavelength, but Elsa looked like she found it easy since she was answering quickly. She was the first to hand in her paper, and she totally aced it.

The bell rang, signaling the end of their second period. Mr. Ray was grading the papers when the entire class exited the room to get lunch. Anna collected her things and went out the door and headed for the cafeteria. She even brought her textbook to at least get a start on studying for next week's test. She could study while eating.

* * *

Anna's friends were all seated at their table. "Anna!" Kristoff's voice boomed. "Sit here!"

"Maybe later, guys. I've got things to do." She answered with a mild smile on her lips.

"Like what?" Olaf asked with a raised eyebrow. He was a geeky boy with a scrawny build. His hair was a deep brown and his chocolate-colored eyes were hidden behind big rimmed glasses. There were light freckles on his cheeks and a bucktooth in the front of his mouth. A lot of people questioned why she was even friends with him, but every time she was faced with that question, she would reply that it was fun being around him. And it was.

"Eh, stuff. Bye!" She turned around and continued walking.

She found Elsa sitting alone in a table, the book she was reading before in one hand and a sandwich on the other. She was nibbling on the sandwich as her eyes remained fixed on what she was reading. Anna took her seat beside her, and she could feel Elsa tense a bit.

"So, what are you reading?" Anna prompted. There was no response from Elsa. Her icy blue eyes remained on her book and she took another bite of sandwich. "Is it interesting?" Still no response.

"What are you doing here?" Elsa finally responded with a cold, monotonous voice, but her eyes were still on her book.

"Well, I thought you'd want someone to sit with you 'cause it must be so lonely being alone all the time and-"

"I prefer being alone."

"Oh come on, no one wants to be alone."

Elsa took a bite of her sandwich and her startling blue eyes turned to meet hers. "Well apparently, I do." She replied in an undertone. Her eyes returned to her book. "Why are you really here?"

"Well, I need help with-"

"How many times have I told you that I don't do tutorials?"

"Well, okay." Anna replied and brought out her textbook. She opened it to a page on multiplying square matrices and was immediately confused by the arrays of numbers and the rows and columns that needed to be multiplied and added. Her pencil met the paper and started writing down the calculations for the matrices. "Multiply this and add that… what's seven times eight again? Oh yeah." She mumbled as she did the mental calculations. "Fifty-six plus seventy-two minus twenty-one and…"

"You're doing it wrong." Elsa's quiet and steady voice broke Anna's concentration.

"What?" Anna asked, perplexed. She was sure she did the right process.

"You're doing it wrong." Elsa replied. Anna turned to look at the blonde girl. Her icy blue eyes were on Anna's textbook, scrutinizing the product matrix and the calculations she wrote. She was still nibbling on her sandwich as she read the page and it seemed as if only her eyes moved. Her book was still in her hand, still in the position it was when Anna found her.

"How?"

"You're multiplying rows with rows." Elsa answered flatly. "You're supposed to be multiplying rows with columns."

"Rows with columns…" Anna's eyes returned to the page and she had to erase everything and start over. She had to keep track of the rows and columns since it was easy to get confused and mix up the numbers she was multiplying. "You mean like this?"

Elsa nodded. It was barely visible, but she still nodded. Although her face was still an emotionless mask.

"Wait. Does this mean that you'll be my tutor?" Anna asked with a raised eyebrow and a triumphant smirk.

"Don't get too full of yourself." Elsa replied with her usual monotone as her eyes scanned the pages of the book in her hands. "This does not change anything. I still won't be your tutor."

Anna's face fell. "Okay." She answered as she took a bite of her own sandwich and continued to work on the matrices she was multiplying until the bell that signaled the end of lunch rang. She collected her things, got up, and headed out the door.

_At least I'm getting somewhere…_ Anna thought as she walked down the hallway and headed for her classroom.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER II -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: So I changed some stuff in chapter one like their topic. It went from geometry to matrices. And I've corrected that typo you noticed. Also, am I going too fast with the plot here, or is it just me overthinking stuff as usual?**_

**I'm supposed to be giving a heads-up to my update schedule…. I don't have specified update days. Due to my location, there will be some instances in which I'll be updating in the middle of the night, a problem faced by people in my previous fanfics, so I have devised a solution to that. I'll update when I can, given that it's 8:00 PM here in the GMT+8:00 time zone. So when it's night here, it'll probably be day there. Or night, depending on where you are.**

**I hope you'll like the chapters to come!**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	3. Chapter 3

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER III -=-=-=-**

* * *

Elsa found the strawberry-blonde-haired girl more annoyingly persistent than she had originally thought her to be.

Elsa was in the hallway, standing in front of her locker to open it so she can retrieve what she needs for the first period. She spun the dial on the lock and it clicked open. The locker's iron door opened, revealing books and notebooks in neatly organized rows and papers in various color-coded folders. She was often described as being obsessive-compulsive when it comes to organizing things. She took her textbook and her notebook from the locker and was about to close the door when a peculiar white envelope attracted her attention.

_What's this? _She thought to herself as she warily eyed the white envelope, inspecting the peculiar bulge on it and the words '_To Elsa_' written in neat cursive handwriting in the envelope's center. She curiously picked up the suspicious envelope and lightly squeezed the bulge on its bottom. It felt like a lot of oval-shaped objects. She finally opened the envelope and found a bag of chocolate M&Ms and a sheet of paper folded into a neat square. She pulled the sheet of paper and unfolded it.

Elsa read the note silently. _Please teach me. Please be my tutor? Just for the week? I really need help with academics (especially math) and I promise I won't be so difficult. Love, Anna. _She found it strange that she read it in Anna's voice. Sighing, Elsa crumpled up the sheet of paper into a small ball and put it in a miniature trash bin inside her locker. She was about to throw away the envelope as well when the chocolates inside the packaging rattled.

_I think I'll hold on to the M&Ms. _Elsa decided and hid the bag of chocolates inside her locker while she threw away the empty white envelope. She loved chocolates and couldn't resist them – even if they came from an annoying strawberry-blonde-haired girl who probably sent them to her as a bribe. Shrugging, she closed the door of her locker and headed for the classroom.

She entered the almost empty classroom. She often came to school early – so early that only a few students were in the halls. It was about 6:20 AM, forty minutes until class starts. Forty minutes to enjoy the silence of an almost unoccupied classroom, where she always feels her best. There were only six people, seven if she included herself, in the classroom, so they were still sedated since their unrulier friends are not yet present.

She pulled out her book and continued her reading. It was when she was around books that she felt so calm and tranquil. Her mind envisions the scenarios written in the pages as her eyes read the strings of words. To her, it was an exhilarating feeling. She would be able to drown out almost all external stimuli with the images in that played out in her mind as she read the words. The tranquil she liked a lot was broken only by the voice of a familiar girl who had been pestering her for two days now. Three if she included today.

"Elsa!" Anna's voice broke Elsa's concentration. "Elsa, right here!" Anna called out again, but Elsa just ignored her.

_Don't look up and make eye contact, you'll only encourage her._

"Can you teach me now? Come on, Elsa, just until next week's exam." Anna continued despite Elsa's attempts to ignore her.

_Don't even acknowledge her. _Elsa tried to focus on her book and tried to drown out Anna's words with the words from the book in her hands. Anna's voice always managed to ruin her concentration, and irritation was already building up within her. _Don't let her know. She'll just see your irritation as a weakness and exploit it._

"If you had used the past two days to study on your own, you won't be needing a tutor." Elsa finally answered and tried to keep her voice level as she spoke.

"The thing is… I'm not really good at self-study."

"Then that's your problem, not mine."

Anna looked crestfallen and hurt by Elsa's words, just as she intended them to be. The redhead turned her back to her with a pout on her face. Elsa continued her reading, not even affected in the slightest by Anna's sad look. She knew that strategy well – using other's sympathy to achieve one's own ends. And she knew how to avoid being taken victim by that ploy. "You'll have to do better than that." Elsa said then took one quick glance and registered the look of disappointment on Anna's face when her tactic obviously failed.

"What can I do to get you to tutor me, then? I'll do anything!"

"Anything?" Elsa questioned with a smirk on her face.

"Anything." Anna replied with a tinge of hope in her voice.

"Well, then." Elsa said and Anna perked up a bit. "I need you to do this. Understand the fact that I don't do tutorials and that my answer shall always be no."

The hope on Anna's face was immediately extinguished and replaced with disappointment as she turned her back to her again. Elsa's eyes returned to the book in her hands.

A long time after that, when most of her classmates were already in the room and her tranquility broken, the first period teacher entered the room. Class has begun.

* * *

It was lunch and Elsa was in her usual seat: alone in a table, a book in one hand and a sandwich in the other.

Anna was seated at her usual table with her friends. At least she wasn't sitting beside her, bothering her with her nonstop questions on whether she will be her tutor or not – to which the answer is always a solid no.

"Hey, uh," an awkward male voice broke her concentration. She glanced toward the direction of the voice and found a boy with something wrapped in paper in his hands. She sent him an icy glare, and he shrunk back a bit, but he didn't leave. Her glares were usually enough to send people off. "E-Elsa, right?"

"What's it to you?" She replied with an edge to her monotonous voice.

"I-I've- I've got something for y-you…" He held out the square whatever-it-was to her. She eyed the object suspiciously and raised an eyebrow. "Oh n-no, I-I-It's not from me. It m-must be so awkward f-for me to do this…"

"Your speech impediment is awkward enough. Get on with it."

"Uh, it's- it's from Anna…" He put the object carefully on the table. "I-I'll just put this and b-be on my way…" He turned and left and smacked his palm against his forehead. "Oh gods, why did I even agree to that?" She heard him mumble as he walked away.

Elsa stared at the object on the table. If it's from Anna, it was sure to be another attempt to get her to tutor her. She picked it up and removed the folded square of paper on the object's wrapping and read it. _Please? Just for a week… (By the way, like it or not, you have to take this. No returns. No exchanges. Cafeteria's orders.) Love, Anna. _

Elsa carefully unwrapped the object and found it to be a tuna sandwich. _Tuna. How in the nine worlds did she know that I like tuna? Has that girl been stalking me?_ She shot a glance at Anna's direction and noticed the strawberry-blonde-haired girl looking at her with a hopeful expression. She quickly noticed Elsa's gaze and turned away almost immediately. A moment later, she turned around again and her turquoise eyes met hers. Elsa mouthed the word _no_ and Anna turned away again with a crestfallen look.

Elsa wrapped the sandwich again and put it into her bag. She continued to munch on the sandwich currently in hand as she read her book.

* * *

School's out and Elsa was treading on the snow that covered the school grounds. The afternoon sun glinted on the snow, giving it a yellow-orange glow. The powder crunched under the heels of her boots with every step, and she found a smirk forming on her face as she continued to walk on and sometimes kick the snow.

She found Anna sitting cross-legged on a bench and hunched over a math textbook on her lap and her pencil on the page, her tongue sticking out of one corner of her mouth in a look of determination – and confusion. Silently, Elsa walked to her, using the snow to muffle her footsteps. She reached her and looked over her shoulder. It was on a page about matrices. She was multiplying matrices, but she didn't seem to have gotten the hang of it yet.

"Okay, rows times columns. Let's see…" Anna mumbled as she traced her finger on the two matrices that need to be multiplied. "Five, three, negative four times eight, negative seven, and two… That's" She punched some numbers on her calculator, but before she could even hit the equals button, Elsa already knew the answer.

"Eleven."

Anna jumped and turned around with a startled look on her face. "Eleven?" She asked. Elsa nodded. Anna pressed the equals button on her calculator and the screen showed '11'. "Wow. No wonder they call you the human calculator." Her eyes turned back to her with astonishment then narrowed after a moment. "What brings you here?" She said with a plain tone.

"Out of pity, I've decided to take you under my wing." Elsa replied with a flat tone. Anna's eyes glinted with excitement, triumph, and hope.

"Really?" She asked; her excitement evident in her tone.

"Yes, but only to get you to stop bothering me."

"Thank you! You-"

Elsa waved her hand aside impatiently. "Give me your address." She command and Anna pulled out a sheet of paper from her bag and scribbled something onto it. She gave Elsa the paper with her address and Elsa folded it up and inserted it into her pocket. "We shall start tomorrow. You better show me that I am not wasting my time in tutoring you."

"Yes ma'am, Ms. Andersen, ma'am!" Anna collected her things, got up, and ran off with a big, idiotic grin on her face. Elsa watched as her tutee ran down the sidewalk until she turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

_Why did you even think of tutoring her in the first place? _Elsa asked herself a moment after Anna disappeared.

_As I have said, to get her to stop bothering me. _She mentally answered the question she had posed herself.

_There's something else, isn't there?_

_And partly to thank her for the presents she got me._

_You have gone soft._

_I have _not.

_We shall see._

Elsa continued to walk on the snow and she headed home.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER III -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: One, so it **_**is**_** just me who's overthinking stuff. Huh, must be the pressure. Two, if you'll look closely, you'll see that the description says '**_**Rating MAY change**_**.' Why's that? It's because I'm still thinking whether or not I should put in some frick-frack in the future chapters. I'm still unsure. (What do you guys think?) UPDATE: I have decided not to think of the M-rated elements for now but it **_**may _resurface in this dark, twisted mind of mine some time in the future. We shall see._**

**Like, wow! 60+ followers already! You guys are **_**really **__**cool**_** (emphasis on the **_**cool**_**) and I'm amazed by the number of people who like this. Hope you'll like the future chapters!**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	4. Chapter 4

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER IV -=-=-=-**

* * *

If Elsa found the strawberry-blonde-haired girl annoying, she found her to be even more so when she is in her own territory.

It was early morning; the sun was just beginning to rise and its light eliminated the last traces of darkness in the sky. Elsa was walking down the snow-covered sidewalk, the white powder glistening like glitter in the light of the morning sun. In her hand was the sheet of paper Anna had given her the day before – the one with her address. To get to Anna's house from hers, Elsa had to take the bus and walk two blocks from the bus stop.

They didn't have school today, considering it was a Saturday, so today would be a good and bad time to tutor the strawberry-blonde-haired tutee of hers. Good because they have a lot of time which they can maximize in order to tackle a lot of topics, given that she pays attention, and bad because she had to spend a day with Anna. She had everything she needed to tutor Anna – books, notes, and some worksheets that she herself made, and all of it was in a satchel hanging from her shoulder.

She finally reached Anna's house. Its yard was covered with snow, even the mailbox was covered with snow. In the yard was a snowman, its stick arm raised in a 'hi'. She walked over to the door and was about to knock when it opened. A man with auburn hair with sideburns wearing a gray hoodie and black sweatpants came out, his back turned to her.

"Sis, I'm going for my morning jog!" He called out, not even noticing her presence. He turned around and stopped in place with an expression of surprise in his green eyes. "Whoa! I was going to run into you if I didn't see you there." He held out his hand for her to shake. "Hans Summerfield. You are?" Elsa just stared at his outstretched hand. "Okay…"

"Hans?" A familiar female voice called out from somewhere inside the house. "Is someone there?"

"Yeah, some blonde chick with a satchel!" He replied to his sister.

That name infuriated Elsa. "This _blonde chick_ has a name." She replied with a cold edge to her monotonous voice, which made the man before her flinch.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by the sound of footsteps behind him. Moments later, a familiar girl with strawberry-blonde hair descended from the staircase. She pushed Hans aside and greeted Elsa with a bright, half sleepy grin. "Elsa! You're here! Come in, come in!" She motioned for her to come inside the house.

"Who's this?" Hans asked as Elsa pushed through him to get into Anna's house.

"This is Elsa; she's going to be helping me with school stuff." Anna replied as Elsa put down the satchel on the couch in front of the television set.

"Oh, she's your tutor?" Hans asked again and Anna nodded.

"Yep. Bye, Hans!" Anna finished as she pushed her brother out the door and closed it shut. Elsa could see Anna's brother jog down the sidewalk when she peered out the window near the door.

"Elsa, I wasn't expecting you this early." Anna finally said after her brother was out of sight. Elsa glanced at her outfit. Olive green pajamas, fluffy bunny slippers, and her strawberry-blonde hair was all messy and wild. Elsa wondered how Anna even tamed that mane and tied it in two braids if her hair is _that _unkempt whenever she wakes up.

"Elsa, what are you looking at?" Anna followed her gaze and looked down. A blush lit up her cheeks as she gave a lopsided grin. "Oh. Uh, this is embarrassing. I'll- I'll just go and change…" She ran up the stairs to the house's second story.

While Anna was upstairs, Elsa sat down on the soft couch. "Sorry Elsa! I didn't know that you were coming here this early, so I haven't been able to whip something up!" Anna exclaimed from upstairs and came down moments later, wearing a fresh green shirt and knee-length white shorts that showed her toned, and lightly freckled legs. Her hair was tied in the braids everyone was familiar with, and she was still wearing her bunny slippers.

"Let's just make this quick." Elsa replied and Anna's eyes snapped to the book on the tabletop. She flipped a switch and the lights came on.

Anna took her seat beside Elsa on the couch. "What are we studying today?"

"Mathematics and Science." Elsa replied "But we'll start with math, seeing as you have so much difficulty on such an easy subject."

"I really need help with that, especially now that we have two big tests next week. I mean, seriously. I think the teachers are _trying _to kill us. First, Mr. Pabbie tells us that we have a big test next week, and then Mr. Ray tells us that we have a test too. I-"

"Summerfield."

"Okay, time to be serious." Anna killed her smile and put on a straight face as she turned to the open book on the tabletop.

"I take it that you know of determinants and Cramer's Rule?"

"Yes." Anna answered and her expression turned to confusion. "Wait, no. Well, not much. I just need a refresher."

Elsa wrote a two-by-two matrix on a sheet of paper. "Pay attention. To find the determinant, multiply this by this and subtract the product of these two numbers by the product of those numbers." She wrote down the determinant of the matrix after showing her tutee the complete solution. (5*3) - (6*3) = -3. "You understand?"

"I think so…"

Elsa wrote another matrix on the sheet of paper and gave her the pencil. Anna's fingers brushed against Elsa's skin as she reached for the pencil, the redhead's skin comfortingly warm and soft. She brushed aside that thought and watched as Anna tried to solve for the determinant of the matrix she had given her.

"There. Is that right?" Anna said after she wrote down the number she needed. Elsa nodded in confirmation and Anna gave her a bright grin. "What do I do next?"

"Solve for x and y."

"How?"

"Like this." Elsa took the pencil from Anna's hand and showed her how to form a matrix for x and divide the determinant of x by the determinant of the original matrix. "Now you do it. Solve for y. Do as I have shown you, instead, replace the second column with the constants."

Anna did as Elsa told her and created the matrix for y and divided its determinant by the determinant of the first matrix. Elsa nodded again in approval and Anna grinned again. "That wasn't so bad!"

"Then I assume you are ready for a three-by-three matrix."

"Bring it on!"

Elsa took the pencil from Anna's hand and wrote a three-by-three matrix on the paper. She then showed her how to do the matrix by splitting it up into three separate two-by-two matrices and using Cramer's Rule to solve for the determinant. "Get it?" She wrote a new matrix and handed Anna the pencil. "Now you do it."

Anna took the pencil and furrowed her brow as she stared at the array of numbers. She bit her lip and scratched her temples with the pencil's eraser as she tried to think. "Do as I did and make three matrices from the matrix." Anna pressed the pencil to the paper and made three two-by-two arrays. She solved for the determinant of each, multiplied it's product by the number to its left and added it all up.

"Two hundred forty-three. Is that right?"

"You're answering them correctly. I thought you were bad at math?"

"I am! It's just- wait." Anna's eyes narrowed as a smirk formed on her face and she turned to Elsa with a sly smile on her lip. She cocked her head and raised her eyebrow challengingly. "Was that a compliment?"

"No." Elsa answered with a flat tone as she tried to keep her face straight. Anna kept smirking.

"Yes it was. A compliment from the Ice Queen herself! You're final warming up to me!" Anna playfully punched Elsa's arm, and she immediately tensed when her fist met her shoulder. Though Elsa found this gesture somewhat fun and comforting.

_You praised her, you simpleton. You shouldn't have done that if you want this pest off of your tail._

_Get it together._

"Focus, Summerfield. I came here to tutor you, not to play."

"You just don't wanna admit that you're starting to like me."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are annoying?"

"You're dodging the question." Anna said with a raised eyebrow.

"Summerfield, I'm helping you study."

"Why are you helping me, then?" Anna cocked her head with a smirk on her lips.

"As I have said yesterday, to get you to stop bothering me."

"Whatever you say…" Anna fell silent and returned her gaze to the sheet of paper.

_Glad that's over. Do not make the same mistake again._

"So… what now?" Anna prompted as she tapped the pencil on the coffee table's glass tabletop. "I've found the determinant, what do I do now?"

"Solve for x, y, and z." Elsa replied as she pointed at the system of equations she wrote above the matrix. "Do as I have shown you earlier.

Anna redid the entire process from replacing columns to splitting the matrix into three to finding the determinant and to dividing it by the original matrix's determinant. "Wow, this stuff just got a whole lot harder…" She said in defeat after she found z. She put the pencil on the table and leaned back on the couch. "No wonder a lot of people don't like math."

"Don't tell me that you're giving up."

"I'm not. I just need a little break." Anna replied then shut her eyes.

"You might fall asleep." Elsa warned.

"No I won't."

"I won't hesitate to slap you awake."

Anna opened one eye and looked at Elsa. "You're a lot chattier here than when in school. Why's that?"

"It's because I'm showing you how to do these." Elsa pointed at the paper which was now almost filled with solutions and matrices.

"Yeah right." Anna closed her eye again and her stomach rumbled. "Oh right, I haven't had breakfast yet." She got up and headed to the kitchen. "You want anything?" She called out from the other side of the wall.

"No." Elsa replied as she pulled out a worksheet on determinants and Cramer's Rule from her satchel.

"You sure?" Anna came back with a bowl of cereal in her hand. The spoon in it bobbed up and down as Anna walked, careful not to spill the milk. She sat down beside Elsa slowly and eyed the sheets in her hand. "What are those?"

"Worksheets. I'm going to test your ability."

"You made those?" Anna asked as she took a bite of cereal. Elsa nodded in response. Anna swallowed her cereal. "You made those for me? Am I really that special?"

"These are to help you understand the lesson."

"Well, obviously, I can't study while eating." She put the spoon to her mouth and chewed on the cereal, swallowing the contents later on. "So in the meantime, what do we do?"

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, genuinely perplexed by Anna's question.

"Well, we could get to know each other." She took another spoonful of cereal.

"Or, I'll just wait for you to finish eating."

"There's that."

Elsa pulled the book she'd been reading in the bus from her satchel and opened her book at the page indicated by the blue bookmark with the words 'I'm one with the wind and sky' written on it in cursive. She made the bookmark herself and it was one of her prized possessions. She continued reading where she left off, at the part where Percy and Annabeth were going to enter the Doors of Death with the help of Bob and Damasen.

Elsa shot a quick glance to her left and found her tutee's eyes on the book in her hands. "House of Hades, huh?" Anna asked after she noticed Elsa's eyes on her. "Is it good?"

"Yes. You should really try reading." Elsa replied and looked at the now empty bowl in Anna's hands. "You're done eating. We could resume this session." She closed the book and put it back in the satchel after which she handed the pencil to Anna and gave her a worksheet. "I'm going to see what you have learned and how well you have absorbed the knowledge. After then, we could move on to operations on matrices."

Anna put down the bowl and the paper on the table and set to work on answering the worksheet Elsa had given her. Elsa watched as her tutee answered the questions on the sheet she had made her and she registered every detail on the redhead's face as she worked. Anna's eyebrow raised, her eyes darting left and right, up and down as they alternated between the array of numbers and the solutions she had been working on. Anna biting her lip, her brow furrowed as she tapped the pencil's eraser on her chin while she was thinking. The disappointed frown on her face when she realizes she had made an error and her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she erased the mistake she had made.

_Why the sudden interest in the redhead? _Elsa asked herself.

_And what exactly do you mean by _interest? She mentally replied to the question posed by her own conscience.

_You've been paying her more attention since you agreed to be her tutor._

_Well, of course. I'm testing her, seeing what she knows and where she needs help._

_You're taking this job too seriously._

_If I don't do a good job here, she might come back to bite me in the butt. I have to ensure that she knows enough so that she never asks me for help again. Also, the faster I get this over with, the faster I can get her off of my tail._

_Good point._

"Done!" Anna exclaimed triumphantly and Elsa checked her tutee's answers. Perfect marks.

"I'm really beginning to question whether you need a tutor or not." Elsa said as she gave Anna the graded paper. "You're exceeding my expectations."

"Was that a compliment?" Anna asked playfully with a raised eyebrow.

_Yes it was, and it's probably going to be the last one you're going to hear from me._

"No it wasn't. Anyone can do those matrices easily." Elsa said despite the voice in her head saying yes. Anna looked crestfallen. "That 'compliment' was meant to show you what low expectations I had of you. And you're exceeding them." Now Anna looked hurt. "But you still have the chance to show me that I am wrong in expecting so few of you." Hope lit up Anna's face as Elsa said these words. "I think you have gotten the hang of determinants. Let us move on to operations."

She turned the pages on the math textbook and pulled out a sheet of paper, preparing to teach her tutee about the second topic on their agenda.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER IV -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: If I hadn't gone on Tumblr for a scheduled break that was supposed to last thirty minutes, I would have updated five hours ago. Guess I was carried away by J-J-J-JOLLY PROCRASTINATION!**_

**If you spot any grammatical errors, I will be telling you something I should have probably told you in the second chapter. English is not my mother tongue and I still have *minor* difficulties in some aspects of grammar. HA.**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	5. Chapter 5

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER V -=-=-=-**

* * *

Despite Anna's best attempts to try and socialize with Elsa, the blonde woman just acted cold in response.

"Pay attention, Summerfield," said her tutor with her usual monotone. Anna's eyes snapped back to the paper in front of Elsa, two matrices written on it with a plus sign in the middle. Her tutor tapped the glass tabletop of the coffee table and pointed at the empty sum matrix to the right of the equals sign.

"Oh, right. Multiplying matrices. Should be easy enough." Anna took the pencil that Elsa had offered her. Her fingers brushed against Elsa's palm, her tutor's skin cold yet smooth and soft. She put the pencil down, grabbed Elsa's hand and felt the coldness of her palm and her fingers, much to the blonde's surprise. Elsa's hand stiffened as Anna held on to it, her cheeks colored by a light shade of rosy pink that was almost invisible against her pale skin. "You got cold hands there." Anna couldn't help but comment on her tutor's temperature and she let go.

"Yes, what about it?" Elsa questioned after she composed herself.

"You _sure_ you're okay?"

"I'm fine."

Anna put her palm to Elsa's cheek. It was as cold as her hand. There was a look of absolute surprise in the blonde's striking icy blue eyes, but the rest of her face remained an emotionless mask. "No you're not."

Elsa brushed away Anna's hand with one calm, yet slightly shaky motion. "I told you already, I'm okay."

Anna got up and ran upstairs. "Summerfield, where are you going?" Elsa called out from behind her. Anna went into her room and took the blanket from the bed and gathered it in a ball in her arms as she went down the stairs again. She draped the blanket around Elsa's shoulders despite the blonde's protests. She then started to head for the kitchen when Elsa protested again and Anna turned around to face her tutor, irritation and bafflement in her blue eyes.

"Summerfield, what is the meaning of this?"

"You have to get warm. You're really cold!"

"Was that an insult?"

"I don't mean cold in personality!" Anna pondered on what she had just said for a while. "Well, you _are _cold figuratively, but I meant cold as in literally!" She turned and continued heading for the kitchen. It was a good thing her brother had already heated some water before he left, so she grabbed a ceramic teacup from the cupboard along with a box of tea. She poured the hot water from the thermos into the cup, put a teabag into the water and she walked slowly and carefully to the living room to serve her tutor the tea to warm her up.

"I appreciate the extra concern, _mother_. But you are overreacting."

"Just drink the tea." Anna commanded and offered Elsa the teacup. Her tutor eyed the cup for a while before finally accepting it.

"Thank you," said Elsa with a soft, barely audible voice that was a bit louder than a whisper.

"You just went through two blocks wearing only a shirt and jeans! Not even a sweater or a scarf! Doesn't the cold bother you?" Anna asked her tutor as she put the teacup to her lips.

Elsa took a sip of tea. "No."

"Why not?"

"I've just gotten accustomed to the cold."

"No wonder you're so cold." Anna muttered and Elsa gave her an icy glare. She may not have been looking at the blonde, but Anna could feel Elsa's cold, arctic blue eyes on her.

Elsa put the teacup on the table and removed the blanket around her shoulders, putting it in a pile at the edge of the couch. She pointed at the paper on the table with a stern, emotionless gaze. "Thank you for the tea. Let us resume."

"Multiplying matrices? Easy." Anna picked up the pencil and pressed its graphite tip to the paper. She sat there perfectly still; the pencil on the paper as her eyes read the rows and columns, calculations running through her mind. Elsa watched and waited with a raised brow.

"Well?" She prompted, which snapped Anna out of her stupor. "It's just rows and columns. Start writing."

"Uh…" Anna scratched her scalp with the eraser of the pencil, half-hoping that the eraser would somehow magically erase her mental block. "Five times eight and three times negative seven-"

"Three times _negative six_. You keep multiplying rows with rows. That mistake of yours has to be fixed."

"Oh. Okay." Anna wrote down her calculations, Elsa scrutinizing the solutions she had written.

"There. Better. Continue."

"So, five times eight, and three times negative six?" Her tutor nodded again. "That's… forty plus negative eighteen or rather, forty minus eighteen and…" Anna did the calculations mentally. "Twenty-two."

"Good. Now write that down there." Elsa pointed at the upper-left corner of the matrix and Anna wrote twenty-two there. "Now solve for the other three."

"Five times negative seven plus the three times twelve… negative thirty-five plus thirty-six… one. Nine times eight… seventy-two plus negative four times negative six… seventy-two plus twenty-four… ninety-six. Nine times negative seven plus negative four times twelve… negative sixty-three minus forty eight… negative one-eleven." She wrote down the products of the numbers in the product matrix. "That right?"

"Yes it is."

"Hmph. Piece of cake."

"I wouldn't get too cocky. That was just a two-by-two. Wait until you see the three-by-three." Elsa said with a dark glint in her eyes paired with a small smirk on her face.

Before Anna could reply, her cellphone which sat on top of the computer desk connected to a charger plugged into a wall socket rang. She shot to her feet and ran over to grab the phone and fumbled with it as she flipped it open. It was her brother calling. She hit the green call button and put the cellphone up to her ear. "What is it?"

"You want to go get some breakfast or something?" The voice of her brother answered.

"Why and where?"

"Well, you must be hungry. I was just jogging around then I came across Wandering Oaken's and I thought, hey, maybe sis and her friend might like some breakfast. You know they serve some good breakfast meals and that they give breakfast specials and discounts on Saturdays."

"I don't know…"

"Come on, baby sis."

"Well…" Anna removed the phone from her ear and faced her tutor, who was on the couch and sipping on the cup of tea she had offered her earlier. Elsa looked up and her striking blue eyes met hers. "Do you want to go get some breakfast?" Anna invited and Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Hans is inviting us to."

Elsa removed the cup from her lips and put it down on the tabletop – a simple gesture yet executed with such grace. "Fine."

Anna put the phone back to her ear. "Wandering Oaken's? We're going there." She hit the end call button and closed the phone. "You ever been to Wandering Oaken's?" Anna asked her tutor and the blonde shook her head slowly. "Then you should really try out their breakfast specials." She grabbed her tutor's wrist and dragged her up and out the door despite her protests. "Come on!"

This was Anna's chance to actually communicate with the blonde-haired girl and try and see if she can break through that barrier of ice.

* * *

Wandering Oaken's was a quaint café that always smelled of coffee, chocolate, and freshly baked pastries. Soft music filled the room and there were all sorts of decorative knick-knacks on the shelves behind the counter which was manned by a big, blond man with a bushy mustache. It was Oaken, the owner of the establishment. He recognized Anna's presence when the bell above the door rang and he turned to her. "Yoo Hoo! Hi Anna! Here for the breakfast specials, ya?"

"Hi Oaken." She responded and looked around. "Is Hans here?"

"He's right over there." He pointed to a table, and on it sat a man with auburn hair and sideburns. He looked up and his gaze met Anna's. He gestured for them to take a seat and Anna and Elsa complied.

"Glad you could join us," said Hans as Anna and Elsa sat on the seats opposite from him. He then offered them the menu. "Oh, and I'm going to be paying this time."

"He's just being a natural gentleman." Anna explained and Hans grinned bashfully in response to the praise his sister had given him. She then leaned closer to Elsa's ear and whispered, "Though he can become a total douchebag sometimes."

"So, you two made up your minds yet?"

"I think you already know what I'm having." Anna said as she envisioned a stack of fresh pancakes topped with chocolate syrup running from the top of the tower down to the plate. Hans nodded in understanding. "How about you, Elsa?" She asked the blonde girl beside her who was browsing the menu.

"A slice of lingonberry crumb pie." She responded with a flat tone and put down the menu.

"Hey Oaken," Hans called out and the big man behind the counter turned to them. "There's a discount on food, right?"

"Ya, half off on all food items, but only until eight o' clock!"

Hans stood up and went to the counter. "I'm going to order, you ladies stay here."

"So," Anna prompted while Hans was away, "now we have some time to ourselves. That means we can talk to each other."

"About what?" Elsa asked as she drummed her fingers on the wooden tabletop.

"You know, about stuff." Anna replied. "We could talk about each other."

"What makes you think that I'm going to tell you anything about myself?"

"I'm just trying to be friendly here."

"As you can plainly see, I'm not the friendly type."

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm only here because I am tutoring you, not because I want to be friends or anything."

"Then why did you agree to tutor me?"

"I already told you twice."

"To get me to stop bugging you?"

"Yes."

"Come on, just talk to me. I'll start us off with a question. Like, what's your favorite video game?" Elsa didn't respond, so Anna poked Elsa's sides and the blonde girl retracted. A grin split Anna's lips as she realized one thing about her tutor. "Ah, so you're ticklish…" She poked Elsa's sides again, and her tutor tried to shield her waist with her hand or even stop Anna's fingers from digging into her side.

"Stop that!"

"Not until you answer my question!" Anna continued her assault on the blonde girl's sides. She could see her lips begin to curve in a smile.

"I don't play video games!"

"Impossible. I don't believe you." Anna poked Elsa's sides more vigorously and a few giggles escaped the blonde's lips. For some reason, Anna liked hearing Elsa's clear and lighthearted laughter.

"S-stop it!" Elsa said as she tried desperately to block Anna's hands. She was now laughing, though she looked like she was trying to control it because her expression would change back and forth from mirthful to straight-faced. "I said st-stop!"

"Answer me first!"

"Fine! If- if you must know, it's Pokémon!" Anna stopped tickling Elsa and the blonde calmed down as she slicked back her windy bangs which were disheveled by her shaking and attempts to shield herself from Anna.

"You like Pokémon too? What is your party made of?"

"Glaceon, Beartic, Cryogonal, Vanilluxe, Articuno, and Regice."

"A party of all-ice types?"

"I like ice types."

"Well, they fit your cold personality…"

"You've said that thrice this day. Now I feel like you're insulting me."

"Whoa, whoa, it's not like that! It's just-"

"You ladies been waiting long?"

Hans went to the table and set down a tray with plates of lingonberry crumb pie, cheese omelet, and a stack of chocolate syrup-topped pancakes. Elsa took the plate with the pie and Anna took the one with the pancake tower, leaving the one with the omelet in the tray.

"So, you're Anna's tutor?" Hans asked Elsa as he took a bite of the omelet.

"Yes." Elsa replied after she swallowed the lingonberry pie in her mouth.

"Why are you tutoring her? Did she bug you to help her?"

"Most likely." Elsa answered with a flat tone.

"That sounds exactly like my little sis."

"Hey!" Anna exclaimed, her voice muffled by the pancakes in her mouth.

"So, how's she doing? Is she doing well?" Hans asked Anna's tutor.

"She's doing well so far. Though she does get confused at times."

"What are you helping her with?"

"Matrices. She gets confused in matrix multiplication."

"Hey! I'm getting better in that. You've seen me breeze through that matrix." Anna protested after swallowing the pancakes she had been chewing on.

"That's because that was a two-by-two. You haven't even shown me how well you can do a three-by-three."

"Three-by-three? Pfft. Sounds easy."

"Are you sure? Because you're having difficulty with rows and columns, I'm not sure you would be able to handle something like that."

"I'll answer anything you throw at me!"

"You haven't even seen the worksheets I've prepared for you."

"Worksheets?" Hans spoke up.

"I plan to test what she knows."

"You got a good tutor there." Hans told Anna.

"Speaking of tutorials," Elsa said as she put down her empty platter. _Wow, she eats fast. _"We are going to resume the session after we return and I want you to focus. I won't be going easy on you."

"Is this payback for tickling you?" Anna asked Elsa with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

A smirk traced Elsa's red lips, her icy blue eyes bright with mischief. "Maybe, maybe not."

It was the biggest expression of emotion Anna had seen in her tutor yet.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER V -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: Dialogue, dialogue, I love dialogue. Tell me if I'm doing something wrong with dialogue...**_

**So, this reached one hundred followers. You don't know how happy that makes me. Honestly, I never thought this would get a hundred followers. I love seeing you guys like this story and I love reading your nice reviews! These really keep me going. I would have given you hugs, but I can't for obvious reasons. Anyways, thanks!**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: So I edited the chapter to make it more Anna POV-based. Looks like I couldn't pull off Third Person Omniscient. Huh. Back to Third Person Limited!**_

* * *

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER VI -=-=-=-**

* * *

After their breakfast in Wandering Oaken's, in which most of the conversation which happened between Hans and Elsa focused on Anna's difficulties, they were finally on their way home, all three of them. It wasn't much of a distance, they just had to walk the three block distance between the café and Hans and Anna's home.

"This time, I want you to focus, Summerfield. I already said that I won't be going easy on you." Elsa said as they entered the living room, which remained unchanged. The books on the table were still open and the papers Anna had been working on were under a red table clock which was used as a paperweight.

"Can't we just, you know, lay back for a while?" Anna protested. Hans shot a sideways glance at his sister.

"No. I'm here to tutor you, not _hang out_. The faster we can get you ready for that exam, the faster I can get you off of me."

"Oh. Okay," said Anna with a disappointed tone.

"What time is it?" Hans asked as he took off his hoodie and hung it on the coat rack which stood near the door. He glanced at the clock which hung above the TV. "Whoa, already eight? It's on!"

"What's on?" Elsa asked as she and Anna watched Hans rush to the couch and grope around for something.

"His favorite early morning show." Anna replied with a rather stoic tone as her brother raised and lowered throw pillows.

"Where is it?" Hans asked frantically. "Where's the remote?"

"I think it's in the couch again."

"It's not here!"

"No, I mean, _in _the couch." Anna replied as she pointed at the couch and a look of understanding dawned upon Hans' face. He thrust his hand into the crevices of the piece of furniture and groped around for the remote. He looked disappointed and reached even further. His arm was now entirely engulfed by the couch's unforgiving maw. Anna had to stifle her laughter upon seeing her brother shake his booty like an idiot as he searched for the remote control inside the couch.

"A little help here!" Her brother exclaimed.

"Sorry, brother dear, but I've got some studying to do. Right, Miss Andersen?" Anna replied cheekily and Elsa nodded. Hans let out a frustrated growl and dug even deeper. Anna turned to her tutor, who was watching her with a cold gaze. "Well, now that Hans is dead set on watching his show, how're we going to go on with the session?"

"Come on, just help me!" Hans pleaded.

"Nope!" Anna replied giddily. Seeing her brother like this was a rare opportunity, and when he does get stuck in an awkward situation like this, hilarity always ensues. She ran over to the computer desk, grabbed her phone and took a snapshot of her brother's weird position with a much audible shutter sound.

"Was that a shutter? Did you take a picture?!" Hans exclaimed incredulously.

"No, I didn't." Anna replied with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Aha!" Hans' yanked and finally pulled out the remote control for the TV. He held it in the air in triumph like it was a trophy he was boasting about. "Found you at last!" He settled into a sitting position and pressed a button on the remote control. The TV's black screen came to life and sound emanated from its speakers.

"Hans! Can't you go watch your show somewhere else?" Anna protested. Her brother didn't even turn to glance at her.

"There's only one TV here! You go find somewhere else to study!"

"Oh come on!" Anna picked up the books and papers on the table and Hans just looked around her every time she obstructed his view. Elsa shouldered her satchel and Anna grabbed her by the wrist to lead her up the staircase and into the house's second story.

The second floor was basically a big square area with three doors – one on each wall that bordered the floor. The floor was covered with fuchsia carpeting and two potted plants sat inside big vases that were each located in a corner. A circular light fixed overhead illuminated the second floor with white light.

"Here? I can still hear your brother." Elsa commented.

"Well, how about here?" Anna suggested as she opened the door to her room. Posters of random bands or movies hanging from the walls, a shelf full of books, a pile of unwashed clothes in one corner of the open walk-in closet, and her laptop connected to the wall. It wasn't dirty at all; the only thing that was embarrassing was the thought of how her tutor would react upon seeing her room. "So, what do you think?" She asked her tutor for feedback about the way she decorated her room.

"It's okay, I guess…" Elsa answered as she walked around the room, her head turning like a crankshaft and her eyes flitting around. "I didn't know you were into Hellsing."

Anna followed her tutor's gaze and found the poster Elsa was referring to. It showed Alucard brandishing the Jackal and the Casull in an X over his chest, the sigil on his hand glowing red, his mouth in a grin that bared his fangs and his long, black hair waving around. Seras was standing behind him, wearing the red Hellsing uniform and wielding the Harkonnen. "The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame," said Elsa as she continued to stare at the poster.

"Wait. You watch Hellsing?" Anna asked her tutor, absolutely perplexed to know that little bit about her tutor's interests.

Elsa shrugged – a small movement of her shoulders that made her braid from her shoulder and down her back. "More or less. And is that- you listen to the Trolls?"

"Yup. They're my favorite band." Anna answered, her favorite song from that band playing out inside her head.

"And this… Frozen… You watched Frozen?" Elsa asked as she moved across the room to stare at another poster – one that hung on the wall directly beside Anna's bed.

"My personal favorite. I panicked when I found out that the character's names are just like ours!"

"Same here." Elsa rummaged in her satchel and pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to Anna. "Now, we continue the tutorial."

Anna took the paper and inspected it. There were three-by-three matrices on it that needed to be multiplied. "Hey! I haven't even studied three-by-threes yet!"

"Just apply the same concept and you will understand." Elsa replied then pulled something out of her satchel – a length of rope attached to a circle with an LCD. It was a stopwatch. Anna's eyes widened as she realized what her tutor had in store for her. "It's easier if you use a calculator. I will be timing you. You have fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?!" Anna exclaimed incredulously. "But that's not even enough time!"

"That's more than enough time. Get a calculator, I'm about to press the button."

Anna ran to her backpack which sat beside the bed and rummaged in it, pulling out a calculator and running to the desk in one corner of the room. She put the paper there and pulled the pencil from her pocket. "Now I _know _this is payback."

"Fifteen minutes begin," Anna heard the beep of the timer starting. "Now."

Anna began pressing buttons on the calculator and writing down the numbers that pop out of the LCD screen. "How is this supposed to help me?"

"I'm going to see how fast you answer." Elsa replied. "I didn't know you read Secrets of the Immortal…"

"I haven't even finished it yet. I'm only halfway into The Necromancer." Anna replied without looking up from the task at hand. "Three times four plus eighteen…"

"Dee's elder masters…" Elsa said and Anna detected a slight rise in her tutor's usually monotonous voice. One that practically screamed _Spoiler Alert!_ "They're…"

Anna stopped momentarily and looked over her shoulder to look at her tutor who was flipping through the pages of the book in her hands, a small smirk on her face. "Don't you dare say it." Anna warned. She wasn't about to hear a big spoiler from one of her favorite book series.

"I'm gonna tell you." Elsa taunted.

"Don't you dare!"

"Isis and Osiris." Elsa finished and Anna screamed in exasperation.

"No! I wanted to find out for myself!"

"And," Elsa continued with another rise in tone. "They're Earthlords. They're also Sara and Richard Newman in their Humani forms."

Anna threw down her pencil in frustration and it hit the carpeted floor. "The clock's ticking…" Elsa warned and Anna scrambled to pick up the pencil. She started hitting buttons on the calculator again and writing numbers in the product matrix. "That was the biggest spoiler in that book and I wanted to find out for myself. Thanks a lot, Elsa!" She shouted back and Elsa chuckled.

"Ten minutes left…" Elsa said.

"Are you trying to pressure me?" Anna snapped back.

"Don't let time pressure get to you." Elsa replied calmly. "Nine minutes."

Anna answered faster, her fingers flying over the calculator and making mistakes that she didn't even notice nor care about. She kept writing the answers down even if she got them confused and misplaced in the matrix.

"Six minutes."

"Done!" Anna exclaimed and dropped the pencil on the wooden desktop. Elsa pressed the button on the stopwatch and it made a beep sound, signaling the end of the timer. Elsa took the paper from the desk, grabbed a red pen from her satchel and started checking it. With a look of disappointment on her face, Anna's tutor returned to her and gave her the paper. 18/30. "What?"

"You let time pressure get to you. It's either I'm going to teach you not to get pressured or how to work faster." Elsa replied in a flat tone with a cold edge.

"You put me under time pressure!"

"No. _You _put _yourself _under time pressure. All I did was set the timer."

Anna's gaze drifted back to the paper. With a sigh, she said, "what now?"

"I'm going to give you another one. This time, you better not let yourself be pressured. People don't work well under pressure." Elsa walked over to her satchel and pulled out another worksheet which she gave to Anna. "You have fifteen minutes."

* * *

"Well, you're making progress." Elsa commented after Anna finished the fourth fifteen-minute worksheet her tutor had given her. "Look at this, you received a 38 out of 40."

"38?" Anna echoed in surprise.

Elsa nodded. "You're ready for that test." She went to a stool in one corner of the room, sat down, and sighed. "That's it for mathematics. I've been tutoring you for five hours and we're already done."

"Ugh, finally!" Anna exclaimed with enthusiasm and jumped into her bed, the fluffy mattresses cushioning her fall.

"You might fall asleep." Elsa warned.

Anna replied, her voice muffled by the cold pillow into which her face was buried into. "So, what _is _your favorite food?" No reply for a long time. "Well, okay." Anna said after seeing that her tutor won't answer.

"How about you?" Elsa asked in a quiet and almost shy voice. "What's your favorite food?"

Anna was a bit surprised when she heard her tutor ask a question that doesn't involve academics. Even more so when she realized that Elsa's question focused on personal details. She looked up from her pillow and found Elsa's mesmerizing arctic blue eyes meeting her own. "Uh, chocolate."

Elsa nodded. "So you like chocolate as well."

"_Like _chocolate? I _love _chocolate!" Anna corrected.

"I see you like Dawn of War too." Elsa commented as her eyes found a poster of an Eldar army with Farseer Idranel in front.

"Mm-hmm. I often use the Eldar faction." Anna replied as her eyes followed Elsa's gaze which was on the Dawn of War poster on her wall.

"Personally, I like using Necrons."

"So you're my enemy."

Elsa chuckled. Another question formed inside Anna's mind. "What's your favorite show?"

"Phineas and Ferb." Elsa answered and her hand immediately flew to her mouth, her blue eyes wide with surprise.

"Phineas and Ferb?" Anna questioned and Elsa sent her an icy glare that said 'g_o ahead, laugh._' But Anna wasn't going to laugh. "Yeah, I watch it too. So does Hans."

Elsa calmed down a bit when her tutee didn't laugh at her. In fact, her tutee didn't even look like she was about to laugh. "Well," said Elsa as she stood up and shouldered her satchel which was near the nightstand, "I'll be on my way now."

Just as Elsa was about to leave through the door, one last question formed in Anna's mind. "Wait!" She called out to Elsa and the blonde stopped in front of the doorsill. Anna phrased her question carefully. "Doesn't it get lonely?"

Elsa turned around to face Anna. Her eyebrow was raised in a question. "What does?"

"You know," Anna hesitated, then swallowed and continued carefully. "Being alone all the time. Always shutting others out. Doesn't it get lonely? Don't you have any friends?"

Elsa looked down, her eyes not meeting Anna's. Anna feared that she accidentally hurt her tutor's feelings with that question. Finally, Elsa spoke in a quiet, flat, emotionless, and cold tone. "That is something you don't need to know. Now, prepare for tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll be preparing you for the science test. Goodbye, Miss Summerfield." Elsa left the room without another word.

Anna mentally facepalmed herself and buried her face back into her pillow. _Anna, you idiot._

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER VI -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: So I was headhopping in the previous version of Chapter VI. Thanks, EpsilonHeta13 for pointing that out!**_


	7. Chapter 7

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER VII -=-=-=-**

* * *

_You're softening up to the girl._

Elsa paced the floor of her room, the polished wooden floor cold against her bare feet. It was still early in the morning, about six o' clock, and the sky was still dark. She often got up that early, it's an old habit, and at this time, she would usually prepare for the day.

_No I am not._

_Then explain that dream._

Elsa had a dream about her redheaded tutee. In fact, her entire REM cycle consisted of dreams of her and Anna together as friends, doing stuff together and actually hanging out like ordinary everyday teenagers. Those dreams were enough to snap her out of her slumber. She woke not because the dreams were nightmares; she woke because of the dreams themselves. She found those kinds of dreams strange for she usually doesn't have dreams that focus on a certain person – much less that person being Elsa's friend.

Elsa eyed her phone which sat motionless on the nightstand. Anna had given Elsa her mobile number through text message the day before (how Anna got Elsa's mobile number, she didn't know) and the blonde had saved the number in her contacts under the name _Summerfield. _She thought of the redheaded girl for a while as her gaze lingered on the device on the nightstand and even considered giving her tutee a call.

_Why not check up on her? See if she's ready for another day in your tutelage?_

She smoothed her nightgown with her hand and walked over to the nightstand and picked up the phone. She navigated her contacts and found _Summerfield _in the list, a green phone icon and an orange message icon beside the name. Her thumb hovered over the call icon but she hesitated.

_What are you doing?_

Instead, her thumb pressed down on the message icon and the textbox appeared, along with a digital touch keyboard on the bottom of the screen. Her thumb flew over the digital keys, creating strings of characters on the textbox as she went. "_Summerfield, meet me in Wandering Oaken's at 7:00._"

_No, no, no. What _are _you doing?_

Elsa tsked and proceeded to delete the message she had composed. Her thumb pressed the backspace button, but what she didn't realize is that she accidentally pressed the send button. _Curse these phones for putting the send button so close to the backspace. _Elsa watched in horror as a message popped up in the phone's screen that said: _Message Sent._

Elsa facepalmed herself and she continued to pace the floor, her phone in one hand. She continued to mentally swear at the error she had made and at the same time waited anxiously for a reply from her redheaded tutee. Moments after, her phone vibrated and played the theme song of Hawaii Five-O - her ringtone for a call. She looked at the screen. On it was the icon for Anna and the call icon below it. Anna was calling her.

She pressed the green call button and put the phone to her ear. "Elsa?" Anna's sleepy voice answered and yawned. "You woke me up with that text."

"Well it's a good thing you're awake, Summerfield." Elsa replied.

"Wandering Oaken's at seven?"

_Now's your chance to tell her that the message was a mistake. _She was about to tell her tutee that the prompt for them to meet in the café was a false alarm, but seeing as she had rudely awakened her tutee with her text message, she decided against it and instead told her her answer. "Yes. Wandering Oaken's. Seven sharp."

"Why?"

"Just be there." Elsa hung up and placed the phone back on the nightstand. She rubbed the edges of her eye that were close to the bridge of her nose and sighed. She just accidentally set up a meeting with her tutee and she had no idea what to do for it has been way too long since she actually told someone to meet up with her.

_Why don't you buy her breakfast?_

That was actually a good idea. Elsa went over to the desk near the window (it was still dark out but the first rays of sunlight were already illuminating the horizon with yellow-orange light) and grabbed her wallet. She still had a considerable amount of money, enough to purchase breakfast for her and her tutee.

_Seriously, what are you doing?_

_Apparently, I'm treating Anna to breakfast._

_You _have _gone soft._

_Perhaps._

_Why?_

Elsa slammed her wallet onto the desk with enough force to make the pencils in the pencil holder shake.

_Have you finally gotten tired of being alone?_

_Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know…_

_Was it because of that question?_

Her tutee's words from the past day resonated in her mind. _Doesn't it get lonely? Don't you have any friends?_

_None._

She went to the bathroom to take a shower. A bathtub with a shower was inside the small, tiled space. She removed her nightgown and her underwear and dropped them into the laundry bin underneath the sink. She stood on the tub and turned the knob on the wall and the showerhead spewed water. She preferred showers more than baths since she likes the feel of the water droplets hitting her skin.

After a moment of scrubbing and rinsing, she turned off the shower and left the tub, the tiled floor of the bathroom unfathomably cold against her bare feet. She rushed to the rug that lay near the door to escape the icy floor and grabbed the towel that hung on hooks set onto the wooden door and wrapped it around her naked body.

_What are you even going to get your tutee?_

Elsa remembered Anna's breakfast the previous day. _Simple. Pancakes._

Elsa went into her room and opened her dresser. She pulled out a fresh pair of underwear, a blue shirt, and a pair of jeans. She slipped on her clothes and ran her fingers through her hair. She had to fix that. She sat in front of the vanity and stared into the mirror. Her hair was down, but at least it looked nothing like the bedhead she got every morning when she wakes up. Her hands moved quickly and efficiently, fixing her platinum-blonde hair into the braid she was familiar with and slicked back her windswept bangs. The girl in the mirror that stared back at her now looked like the Elsa everyone was familiar with.

_Before you go, make sure you have forgotten nothing._

_You're being unusually helpful today._

_I'm a figment of your imagination. I help with whatever you want to do, whether I want to or not._

Elsa patted her pockets. Her wallet and the keys to the house were already insider her jeans pockets. She grabbed the jacket that hung on the coat rack and put it on because she thought that Anna might overreact again if she's cold again. She scanned her house another time and shut the door behind her, locking it in the process.

_Time to meet Anna in Wandering Oaken's._

_Let's just hope that she'll be there._

* * *

Elsa had been waiting in Wandering Oaken's for thirty minutes. There was already a plate of lingonberry crumb pie and another with a stack of pancakes with chocolate syrup. It was 7:06 in the morning and her tutee hasn't arrived yet. She kept herself entertained by reading a book for the last thirty minutes as she waited for the redheaded girl to pass through the doors.

_She must have forgotten._

_Or she might have just slept in._

Elsa was preparing to leave the café as there was no sign of her tutee. Just as she was about to stand up, the door opened and the bell rang. Oaken looked to the door and a smile brightened his face – an obvious hint that her tutee had arrived. A familiar redheaded girl came into view and she was wearing a thick gray sweater. The redhead's startling blue eyes snapped to Elsa's direction and lingered there. A smile lit up her face and she ran her fingers through her red hair as she walked toward the table.

"So," Anna began as she sat on the seat opposite to Elsa. "Why'd you call me here?"

"I just thought that my tutee would like some breakfast." Elsa gestured at the plate of pancakes. "It _is _the most important meal of the day and you'll need it. Today, we're going to be tackling topics from science."

"Oh, well, thanks." Anna said then dug into the stack of pancakes. "I'll be paying-"

"You needn't. My treat."

Anna looked up from her food, a look of surprise in her eyes. "Wait. The Ice Queen herself, _treating _me to breakfast?"

"Well, if you don't like that, then you could pay for your own meal."

"No, no, no! I- it's… thanks." Anna continued to eat her breakfast and Elsa watched her tutee dig into the plate of pancakes with fervor.

"Where's your brother?" Elsa asked.

"Out for his morning jog." Anna answered through a mouthful of pancakes.

"Ah. Well, you're ready for math. I trust that you remember what I taught you yesterday?" Elsa asked and Anna nodded.

"Sure. Ask me a question. Go on, test me."

"Very well." Elsa thought of a question all the while being surprised by the fact that Anna actually _asked _for a challenge. "How do you use matrices to solve for x in a system of linear equations?"

Anna swallowed the bite of pancake she had been chewing on. "Make a matrix, find its determinant, substitute the elements of the _x_ column with the constants, find its determinant, and divide the determinant of x with the determinant of the first matrix."

"Impressive." Elsa commended as she clapped her hands. Anna grinned, revealing bright white teeth, though a few were stained brown by the chocolate syrup. "Cramer's Rule."

"Quantity of A1 times B2 minus quantity of A2 times B1." Anna answered quickly.

"Very good. You _are _ready for the test."

Anna smirked. "So, science?"

"Yes. We're going to focus on simple harmonic motion, wave properties and formulas on wave frequency, wave velocity, and wavelength. Maybe even the electromagnetic spectrum."

"Sounds like a lot."

"It's not so hard. You have gotten the hang of math after all. The formulas shall be a breeze for you."

"So, when do we start?"

"Well, after we're done here, we could just go to your place and I can start with the tutorial there."

Anna swallowed the last of her pancake. _Damn she eats fast. _"Elsa," she began with a small, shy tone. "I'm sorry for yesterday. That question… if only I knew how personal-"

"No, no. It's okay. You don't have to apologize."

Elsa's answer surprised Anna since her eyes widened. "Wait… what do you mean it's okay?"

"I mean _it's okay_. You did nothing wrong. Your curiosity led you to ask that question and it was rude of me not to answer." Elsa didn't meet her tutee's eyes as she answered.

"So," Anna leaned forward though hesitant. "_Does _it get lonely?"

"At times."

"So you don't have any friends?"

"No one but my own conscience."

_Hey, hey, don't drag me into the fray._

"Your own conscience." Anna echoed with a stoic tone but Elsa could tell that she was trying not to laugh.

Elsa smirked. "Yes, solitude may have its effect on one's sanity."

_What do you mean _effect on one's sanity?

"Like what? Talking to yourself?"

Elsa shrugged. "More or less."

"So you talk to yourself?"

"Only to my conscience who is _a figure of my imagination._"

"So… now that we're done eating, we could go start."

Elsa looked up and her gaze met Anna's. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but were you actually _eager _to go to the tutorial?"

"Well, I asked for your help, didn't I?"

Elsa nodded in approval. "You're improving, Summerfield. You're improving in more ways than one."

"So… can we go?"

"Since you're so eager to…" Elsa sholdered her satchel and Anna got up from her seat. "Oh, and, Anna, I want you focus. You did ask for my help and I'm going to give it to you."

"Of course, of course." Anna emphasized her reply with gestures, then she looked like she just realized something. "Wait, did you just call me _Anna?_"

Elsa realized that as well. "Well, I guess so."

A smirk traced Anna's lips. "So, does that mean-"

"That we're friends?" Elsa finished for her tutee. "Perhaps."

Anna wore a big grin as they left the café.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER VII -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: Changelog time!  
+Changed way of introducing POVs: no longer using Anna/Elsa specific chapter markers  
+Returned to Third Person Limited  
+Implemented major changes in Chapter VI to make the chapter more Anna POV-specific**_

**I would have updated yesterday if I wasn't in the #ElsannaSleepover (organized by the great emirael). Seriously, it was hella awesome. Also, graduation practices are getting in the way and here I am panicking over requirements and clearances. Luckily, I have two day-offs (tomorrow and the day after that) so hopefully, I'll be able to update in those days.**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	8. Chapter 8

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER VIII -=-=-=-**

* * *

"Are you sure you're ready?" Elsa asked her tutee as they walked down the corridor side by side.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Anna assured her. They spent three hours yesterday studying wave properties and formulas on waves and Anna got the hang of it quickly, leading Elsa to wonder if she really needed a tutor. And to maximize the two remaining hours, she prepared her tutee for future lectures in mathematics - Trigonometry to be specific. And Anna had difficulty understanding the six trigonometric functions.

"You sure?" Elsa persisted. "You don't need reminders or refreshers or something?"

Anna squeezed Elsa's shoulder. Her first reflex was to stiffen up, but after a few seconds of having her tutee's hand on her shoulder, she finally relaxed a bit. "Els." Anna said and Elsa turned to her tutee. She found herself focusing on the redhead's freckles that peppered her tan skin. "I'm fine. I got this."

Elsa sighed. "Alright. Then I hope you remembered what you learned. In fact, why don't you show me right now? Rule used to find determinants."

"Cramer's rule."

"All possible outcomes from an experiment."

"Sample space."

"Desired outcome in probability?"

"Event."

"Concept used in multiplying matrices."

"Rows times columns."

Elsa nodded in approval and Anna let go of Elsa's shoulder and she swung her arms beside her as she continued walking. "If I'm not mistaken," Anna began and she turned to Elsa again, her cerulean eyes alight with humor, "were you actually _concerned?_" Anna smirked, and Elsa took note of the way the redhead's nose scrunched.

"It would be a stain on my reputation if a tutee of mine fails." Elsa answered and Anna raised an eyebrow. "And I don't want to see you fail." Anna perked up then Elsa continued with a cold tone. "That will be such a waste of time and effort."

Anna punched Elsa's arm playfully. "Come on, just admit it!"

"Admit what?" Elsa remained stoic as ever, but in a playful manner that her tutee seemed to like.

"That you and I are friends!"

"Why would I?" Elsa replied and Anna started poking her arm repeatedly, reminding her of the first time Anna tried to ask her to be her tutor. She was genuinely annoyed by the redheaded brat back then, but now, not so much.

"Say it. Say it. Say it."

Elsa's shoulders shook slightly in a silent giggle as she gently pushed away the redhead's hands. "Okay, okay, fine. We're friends. Happy?" Anna perked up and Elsa somehow liked seeing her redheaded tutee smile. "Just remember what I taught you and you'll be fine."

"I'm not sure we're doing Trigonometry in the test." Anna said jokingly.

"No, but you could use that in the event that Mister Pabbie decides to teach us that." Elsa and Anna entered the classroom and took their seats – Elsa sat directly behind Anna. "The teacher's going to be here soon, and the test will begin. I expect you're prepared?"

"I am. I am."

"For both tests?" Elsa pressed. Their Math and Science tests happened on the same day, that's why she tried to prepare Anna as quickly as she could so that her tutee doesn't fail the test.

"Yep!" Anna answered with a confident grin.

"Okay then," said Elsa as she pointed to the front of the classroom. Their teacher, Mr. Pabbie, entered the room, a stack of papers in his hands. "Time to show me what you've learned."

"Good morning class," said the math teacher as he sat down on the chair behind his desk and placed the papers on the table with an audible thump of paper against wood. "I trust you're all ready for the test?" The entire class groaned, except Elsa and Anna, and the redhead looked like she was hyped to take the test. Pabbie shot a quick glance at Anna and his lips curled into a small smile. "Very well, let us begin. You have one hour."

"Tell me when, I'm ready to go." Anna murmured and Elsa can't help but smirk.

The diminutive teacher distributed the papers. Anna and Elsa got theirs and Anna pressed her pen to the paper and began filling out the needed information. Elsa watched as her tutee eagerly wrote her name on the paper.

Elsa's eyes fell to her own paper. Mostly matrices and some problems on probability. Elsa glanced at her tutee again. She was writing down things with fervor as her fingers flew quickly over the calculator beside her paper. Elsa's gaze returned to her paper and she herself started answering the questions. She calculated and solved and answered the questions quickly and without difficulty.

Elsa could hear her tutee mumble sometimes. She could hear her whisper her solutions to herself sometimes, and Elsa would listen intently and criticize her solutions. So far, her tutee has made no error, so she was assured of Anna's ability.

All the while, their math teacher did his rounds around the classroom to ensure that there was no cheating between students. Pabbie passed near Elsa and he kept his gaze on her paper – which was fully answered. He nodded in approval. "You're always the first to finish in this class, Miss Andersen." He said softly – almost a whisper – then looked over to Anna. "Miss Summerfield has certainly gotten quicker. Your tutelage really helped."

Elsa nodded as she watched her tutee finish her test. "She has improved. Sometimes I wonder if she even needs a tutor."

Pabbie leaned over, a few strands of his wild, straw-colored mane brushing against her skin. "She needed the tutelage. Her grades were going down."

"Really?"

Pabbie nodded. "She needed your help. And the way I see it, you need hers" Pabbie walked away and Elsa just stared at her pen that lay motionless on the arm of the armchair. Pabbie's words left the blonde to wonder if there is something he knows that she doesn't.

"Psst. Elsa. You done?" A voice whispered. It was from Anna. Elsa looked up from the pen she was staring at and found her tutee looking over her shoulder. Elsa looked straight into the redhead's bright, cerulean eyes and nodded. Anna grinned. "The test was really easy."

"If I hadn't helped you, how do you think you would have done?" Elsa whispered back.

"Not well, I guess."

"Miss Summerfield and Miss Andersen," the voice of their math teacher called out and their gazes snapped to the diminutive figure sitting behind the desk. "Conversation between students is prohibited for the duration of the test. You each have one warning. Another and you will be disqualified from the test." Even though he said that with a serious tone, Elsa could see humor light up his dark brown eyes. "Class, you have forty minutes remaining. If any of you are done with your tests, you can pass them."

Elsa and Anna were the only ones that stood and together, they walked over to the desk in front of the whiteboard and placed their papers there. Pabbie's gaze was on them the whole time, his eyes filled with humor and happiness even though his face was completely straight. "You may return your seats now."

Elsa returned to her seat and pulled out the book she was reading from her bag. She flipped it to the page that was marked by the bookmark and continued her reading, her eyes moving left and right as they traced the strings of characters printed on the page. The whole time, she could feel Anna staring at her. She looked up momentarily from her book and looked into Anna's eyes, which were on the book as well. Anna's playful gaze met hers. "What's wrong?" Elsa whispered as to not attract the attention of her classmates and put her and her tutee in an awkward situation.

"I've never finished a test this early before and now I don't know what to do…" Anna whispered back.

"Don't you bring books? To keep you entertained when idle?"

"Well, I was planning to, but you already gave out a big spoiler!"

Elsa chuckled. "They won't reveal themselves until book six. Besides, you're still on book four. You've got a lot more to read."

"Only one test to worry about now." Anna quietly mused, her voice small.

"Physics? Are you telling me you're worrying about physics?" Elsa questioned Anna with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, no. Just nervous."

"You've got nothing to be nervous about if you remember what I've taught you."

Anna perked up and Elsa continued reading her book, but she knew that Anna's eyes were on the book the whole time. And she didn't mind at all.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER VIII -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry if this one was relatively short compared to the other chapters, it's just that I've been under a lot of pressure lately what with the upcoming graduation which is in two weeks. That pressure just gave me writer's block and I had difficulty writing for a while.**_

**I'm kinda dissatisfied with this one tbh**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	9. Chapter 9

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER IX -=-=-=-**

* * *

"Anna, you finished that test in, like, twenty minutes!" Kristoff praised the redhead as he chewed on a bite of burger.

They were in the cafeteria, indulging themselves with lunch. Anna was sitting together with Kristoff and Olaf like always. Anna was nibbling on a sandwich as she listened to her friends rant praises about her.

"That was a first for you, Anna! Finishing a math test like that in record time and get most of the questions correctly!" Olaf commended Anna and he patted the redhead's back with a skinny arm. Anna grinned bashfully. She was a sucker for compliments, even if they came from her two best friends. "What's your secret?"

Anna swallowed the sandwich in her mouth that she had been chewing on and cleared her throat. "I just had a really good tutor."

"Well yeah, you told us that you got a tutor, but you never told us who." Kristoff continued and leaned forward. "So, who _is _your tutor?"

Anna turned looked over her shoulder and her gaze fell on the blonde girl sitting alone in her table, a book in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Anna wondered if that's all Elsa does during lunchtime. "My tutor?" Anna began. "Elsa Andersen." She returned her gaze to her friends who were staring at her with blank stares.

"Your tutor," Olaf began with a small voice. "Is the Ice Queen herself."

"Yep." Anna replied and nodded her head.

"No wonder you were so good…" Olaf finished and took a bit out of the carrot in his hand.

"How did you convince her to be your tutor?" Kristoff asked. "I mean, she gives everyone the cold shoulder. And by everyone, I mean _everyone._"

"I don't know. She just agreed." Anna answered, being careful not to say that she just continuously annoyed Elsa until the blonde helped her out of exasperation.

Kristoff narrowed his eyes. "No, I don't think so. She just doesn't _agree _to something." He said his reply with a suspicious tone and leaned forward. "What _did _you do?" Kristoff questioned.

"I feel like I'm being interrogated here…" Anna said with discomfort as her best friend's brown eyes continued staring at her questioningly.

"I just want to know how you got her to tutor you." Kristoff continued. "I mean, someone actually being noticed by the coldest girl in school? That's something to talk about!"

"Come on, you talk about her like she's a corpse who came to life." Anna replied.

"Knowing Anna," said Olaf after he swallowed another bite of carrot, "she probably annoyed the hell out of Andersen."

"Oh yeah, the oldest trick in Anna's book." Kristoff smirked. "The _Annoy Someone until He or She is Forced to Help You_." Olaf and Kristoff burst into laughter and Anna sighed in exasperation. She got up, bringing her tray with her and headed for the table of the blonde girl. "Where're you going?"

"Away from you idiots." Anna answered and playfully stuck her tongue at the two boys who were still laughing.

She sat at the lonely table beside the blonde girl whose eyes were still glued to her book. "Hello, Anna," said Elsa without really looking away from her book. "What brings you here?"

"I just needed to get away from Kristoff and Olaf." Anna answered as she put down her tray on the table.

"If those two were able to pester you," Elsa said in a steady tone, "then I would be able to say that they may be a lot more annoying than you are."

"Yeah." Anna said and was suddenly reminded of something. "Pabbie said he checked our papers first and he just told me our scores. Guess what I got."

Elsa pondered on Anna's question for a bit and took a sip of iced tea. "I don't know, what?"

"A forty-five out of fifty!" Anna answered enthusiastically.

"Good for you." Elsa replied with a proud tone.

"You got a fifty, no contest." Anna continued. "But still, that was the first time in years where I got a score higher than forty in any math test."

"Well," Elsa said and put down her drink and book. She turned to her, her gaze meeting the redhead's. "Now that we know that you're okay with mathematics, we'll just see how physics does for you."

"Mr. Ray really put a lot of difficult questions there." Anna said as she scratched the back of her head. Elsa found herself focusing on the platinum-blonde streak in Anna's fiery red hair and the way it gleamed when the light struck the blonde lock.

"What's that?" Elsa asked as she pointed at the streak in Anna's hair.

"What's what?" Anna was perplexed and she followed Elsa's finger. She found what the blonde was pointing at. "Oh, this?" She continued as she held up her braid – the one with the blonde streak. "I had this since birth. I don't even know why, none of my parents had a strand of blonde hair."

"How about grandparents?" Elsa asked.

"Well, my grandma had blonde hair, so my parents suspected that I just inherited her blondeness and that it just skipped a generation." Anna explained.

"It's still interesting though: how that streak is blonde and the rest of your hair is red." Elsa mused.

"Yeah, it still confuses me sometimes." Anna answered and a thought struck her. "Say, are you free later?"

That question took Elsa completely aback. She felt a fierce blush in her cheeks that she immediately tried to banish. "What? Why?"

"Just asking." Anna replied, which left Elsa wondering. "You see," the redhead continued, "Mulan suggested this Chinese restaurant and some friends and I are going. I just wanted to know if you wanted to come with, not that I'm insulting you or anything. I know you value your solitude, but I just thought that you might like coming with us for a while."

Elsa remained silent and Anna's mind raced with thoughts of the possibility that she might have insulted the blonde or something. "Els?" Anna prompted. "Was it something I said?"

Elsa briefly flashed a smirk. "As much as I would detest going, you had me at Chinese food."

Anna grinned, rose from her seat and headed back to her table with her friends. Elsa watched as the redhead left and she kept her eyes on how the redhead's braids swayed left and right as she walked.

* * *

"So," Mulan prompted as the group entered the restaurant. "What are we going to order?"

After school, the group which consisted of Rapunzel, Merida, Mulan, Anna, and Elsa headed to the Chinese restaurant, Zhang's, 'to chow down on some chow' as Anna had said. The security guard, Yao, was a short, stout man with a bushy beard and a bruised eye. He looked intimidating and even sent a few menacing glances at the group as they entered the restaurant. The receptionist, Ling, was a tall and skinny man with a ridiculous look on his face. He asked if they had a reservation and Mulan answered. The receptionist even made a few puns in his sentences. After Mulan made it clear that she had a reservation, Ling led them to their table and there they waited for the waiter to give them menus.

"I don't know." Merida answered as they took their seats. "I haven't even taken a look at the menu yet."

"Speaking of menus…" Rapunzel pointed at a man behind them - a tall man with a long mustache that originated from below his nose and went off into two long tendrils that ended well below his chin. There was a cricket on his shoulder that chirped as he walked towards the table, a stack of menus below his arm. His nametag read 'Mushu'.

"Oh here are the menus," said Mulan as the waiter with the oddly long mustache distributed the menu. "Now, what're we going to order?"

The group browsed their menus and told each other what they're going to order from the wide selection of oriental dishes. After they all agree on a certain dish, the waiter, Mushu, will take note of that inside a little notepad. After they were done ordering, the waiter went away to serve other tables.

"So, what convinced you to come with us, Elsa?" Rapunzel asked as they waited for their food. "I mean, you're the Ice Queen. You practically ignore anyone who tries to talk to you."

"Uh, Punzie," said Anna in a warning.

"What? I just want to know why she came along."

"It sounds like I am unwelcome." Elsa said in a cold tone.

"I invited her." Anna answered and turned to the blue-eyed blonde. "As a way of saying thanks."

"Thanks? Thanks for what?" Merida asked.

"She's the one who tutored me."

"No wonder you finished that test so quickly." Mulan praised.

"So, you tutored Anna?" Rapunzel questioned the blonde.

"Yes." Elsa answered in a flat tone.

"Think you could perhaps help me out too?"

"No."

Anna burst into laughter and Elsa turned to the redhead. "Having Anna under my wing was difficult enough. What with her being a stubborn tutee who has difficulty absorbing some topics."

"Hey!" Anna protested and Elsa chuckled a bit.

"Here's the food!" Mulan exclaimed and all of them turned toward the general direction of the kitchen. A big, fat man was walking towards them, pushing a trolley. On the trolley were various plates and bowls of the food they ordered. The obese man was Chien Po, as was said by the nametag on his chest. He put the plates and bowls of assorted oriental dishes on the table and all of them looked eager to dig in and indulge themselves with Chinese food. Before leaving, Chien Po bowed and Mulan returned the gesture.

"Bow, you guys." Mulan whispered. "It's a sign of respect." The others – even Elsa – followed suit. The waiter left and Mulan faced the group with an eager smile on her face. "Time to dig in!"

Elsa didn't regret her decision of tagging along with Anna. She didn't want to go since she found no purpose in attending, but she had a thing for Chinese food, so the redhead got the bigger leverage. The group happily indulged themselves with various oriental dishes that was sure to make their wallets have that empty feeling after they receive the bill, but it was all worth it. Noodles, dumplings, Peking Duck, Sweet and Sour Pork, and a lot of other dishes.

"Did you hear?" Merida began as she chewed on a big chunk of Peking Duck. "Quarterly Exams are two weeks from now."

"If your mom was here, she would have certainly scolded you or something." Rapunzel added. She straightened her back, cleared her throat, and did the best Elinor impression she could do. "A lady does not talk with her mouth full." The entire group laughed. Even Elsa chuckled.

"Wait, exams are coming up?" Anna exclaimed.

"Yeah, you're gonna need all the help you can get." Mulan teased.

"Hey, I'm not _that _hopeless!" Anna answered back and turned to Elsa, who was sucking up a particularly long strand of noodle. "Right?"

Elsa swallowed and cleared her throat. "Well, you still have some weak points that need improving on." Anna opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but before she could say whatever she had to say, Elsa waved her hand aside. "And, yes, I'll help you with that."

"Here come the Fortune Cookies!" Mulan announced and everyone's gazes fell on Mushu, who was walking toward them with a plate of fortune cookies. Mulan was the first to take one, next was Rapunzel, then Merida, then Anna, and finally Elsa.

"I don't believe in fortunes." Elsa said as she waved aside the platter that Mushu offered to her.

"Oh come on, woman. Fortune Cookies are, like, custom or something!" He offered the plate again and Elsa still refused. "Just take one. It won't do any harm! Come on, take one or there'll be great dishonor. Dishonor on your family, dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" Elsa took one and Mushu walked away with a triumphant look on his face.

"'_The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of them all.'" _Mulan read hers out loud.

"'_When will my life begin?_'" Rapunzel read hers and looked up with a confused expression. "What? I'm sure the ones who make these things are drunk or something."

"'_Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting one in a fruit salad._'" Merida read hers. "I agree with you, Punzie."

"'_Love is an open door._'" Anna read hers aloud. "What does yours say, Els?"

Elsa cracked open her fortune cookie and read the slip of paper silently. Her ears heated up and she was sure her face was as well. She folded up the paper calmly as to not make her seem strange, and put it in her pocket.

"What does it say?" Anna pressed.

"Nothing important." Elsa replied with her usual monotone.

"Come on, what did it say?" Anna poked Elsa's arm repeatedly.

"'_Let it go._'" Elsa answered.

"Well, now that the bill's paid, I say we ditch this joint." Mulan said and all of them gathered the belongings and stood up. They left the restaurant, but the only thing in Elsa's mind was what the fortune said. What it actually said: _The one you will love is right beside you. _The person beside Elsa at that time was Anna.

_No use denying it now, Els. _Elsa's conscience said in her mind.

_I just have to keep it hidden from her._

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER IX -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: "DISHONOR ON YOUR WHOLE FAMILY, DISHONOR ON YOU, DISHONOR ON YOUR COW!" I've been dying to use that line in a fic.**_

**Graduation's seven days away and I'm in the twilight zone between tranquility and panic. Tranquility because I can finally leave school, and panic because of pressure coming from unknown sources for unknown reasons.**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	10. Chapter 10

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER X -=-=-=-**

* * *

_From pest to friend course of a week. _Elsa's conscience whispered into her mind. _Your little infatuation with her must be greater than I thought._

_I am _not _crushing on her! _Elsa screamed mentally.

_Oh yeah?_

"Yes!" She screamed at nothing but the silence of her room. The silence was once again broken by the sound of footsteps padding along the hall outside her room. The door opened slowly, and the head of her aunt Gerda poked into the room and looked around with a bewildered expression in her eyes.

"Elsa, dear," said her aunt as her eyes became fixated on her. "Is something the matter?"

Elsa looked away and waved her hand at her aunt. "Yes," she mumbled. "I'm fine. Just...talking to myself."

"Okay then. Just don't shout again. You might startle the sleeping neighbors." Her aunt Gerda warned and closed the door shut behind her with an audible _thud. _Elsa was once again alone with her thoughts - which mostly consisted with her annoying conscience and thoughts of the redheaded girl.

Elsa moved to the desk near the window and sat at the stool. She opened her sketchbook to her most recent project. A sketch of Anna in the dark green shirt and jeans she wore during their first tutorial session. She was quite proud and of the sketch because she believed that she captured her details such as the freckles on her face and arms and the streak in her hair. She kept her gaze trained on the drawing, her eyes tracing the fine curves of the figure she immortalized in paper.

"Elsa!" Her aunt's voice broke through her stupor. "You have a visitor!"

"Who?" She shouted back without her eyes leaving the paper.

"She said her name is Anna Summerfield!" Her aunt replied. Elsa's eyes widened in surprise and she immediately closed the sketchbook and hid it in a drawer in her desk. She left the room and descended the stairs to meet her visitor. Gerda had already invited Anna in and they were on the couch, talking to each other. Her aunt turned to look over her shoulder to where Elsa was standing midway down the flight of stairs. "Oh, here she is," said her aunt and the redhead looked over her shoulder and greeted Elsa with a bright smile that made the blonde feel... _awkward._

"Hey, Els." Anna greeted the blonde as she got up and headed toward her.

"Who's your friend, Elsa dearie?" Gerda asked as she watched the redhead start to scale the staircase

"She's my tutee." Elsa replied, trying to avoid looking at the redhead who was only a few steps' distance from her. "And she's here for a tutorial session, as we have agreed to yesterday."

"Okay." Her aunt replied with a shrug and turned back to the television.

Elsa faced the redhead, who was now standing on the step directly below the one she was on. Such close proximity to the girl bothered her a bit, but another part of her liked standing so close to her. She continued to stare at the beaming girl, until her voice broke her dazed state. "So," Anna began and Elsa snapped out of it and realized she was staring. "What're we going to do first?"

"First," Elsa began as she turned and went up the stairs as quickly as she could so as not to let the blonde catch the blush she was sure was on her face at that very moment. "I'm going to have to refresh your memory. After that, we could start studying in advance." She could hear Anna following behind her.

They finally reached the door of Elsa's room. The blonde reached for the gleaming doorknob and when her hand closed around the chilly metal of the knob, something spoke in her mind,

_You're bringing her into your own room. Do you know what implications-_

_Shut up. I don't think like you._

_Well, I _am _your conscience. I'm a figment of your imagination, we think exactly alike._

_No we don't._

Elsa turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. The blonde entered and Anna followed and she took in the details of the room. Sunlight spilled through the triangular window that took up a large portion of one of the room's walls, the glass covered with intricate patterns made of frost. There was a wooden desk right in front of the window and on its surface was a lamp, a pencil holder, and a stack of books. There was a globe in one corner of the room near the walk-in wardrobe set into the right wall of the room. Bookshelves were set to the left and right of the triangular window and the bed took up the left side of the room. On the floor was a big carpet that. took up a lot of floor space.

"So," Elsa prompted shyly. "What do you think?"

"It's nice. I love what you've done with the place." Anna faced Elsa to find the blonde staring out the window. She could swear that she found a slight coloration on thee blonde's usually pale cheeks.

Elsa pulled a plastic chair from one side of the room and put it next to the seat that was already near the desk. She removed the stack of books from the surface of the desk and put them down beside the piece of furniture. She took the math book from the stack and opened it on the desk and took a seat on the plastic chair. Afterwards, she motioned for the redhead - whose head was still turning like a crankshaft and taking in the room - to come sit on the seat in the desk.

"Wow," said Anna as she sat on the leather seat, "still warm." The comment brought a blush of embarrassment across Elsa's face. "Someone should really invent a word for this..."

"For what?" Elsa inquired and raised an eyebrow.

"For that feeling of getting warm by sitting on a recently used and still warm seat." Anna furrowed her eyebrows and Elsa observed the pout that formed on the redhead's face as she pondered. "How about, Assmosis?"

Elsa and Anna laughed for some time before their laughter died down. "Alright, Anna, you've had your fun." Elsa tapped the open book. "Now it's time to focus." Elsa leaned over and flipped the pages on the book to a page on permutations and combinations. "But before I start, tell me, what's the formula for permutations?"

"Uh, it has an n and a k, right?" Anna answered.

"Factorial of N over the factorial of the quantity of N - K," Elsa corrected. "That's one thing to work on." Elsa opened the drawer in her desk and found the sketchbook on top of the bond papers she needed. She quickly pulled up the sketchbook while ensuring that it doesn't open and retrieved five sheets of paper. She immediately replaced the sketchbook inside the drawer and shut it.

"What was that?" Anna asked.

"Just my sketchbook." Elsa replied.

"You draw?" Anna questioned the blonde. "Can I see?"

"No." Elsa answered and felt the urge to _go. _"Now, if you excuse me, I feel a disturbance in my bladder." She rose from her seat and left the room to go to the toilet to relieve herself.

While Elsa wasn't around, Anna saw her chance and she took it. She pulled open the drawer and took Elsa's sketchbook. "Now, let's see why she doesn't want me to see these." She flipped the cardboard cover of the sketchbook and laid eyes upon a drawing of a snowflake. And intricate and highly detailed picture of a six-pointed snowflake perfectly immortalized into paper with pencil. "If it was just a snowflake, why didn't she want me to see it? It's a nice snowflake." She flipped to the next page: a sketch of a happy snowman. The next one was another beautifully drawn snowflake but of another shape. She just skimmed through most of the pages, until one caught her attention. "Is that..." Anna put her finger on the pencil drawing on the paper. "Me?"

There was a drawing of her in Elsa's sketchbook. A beautifully drawn and highly-detailed sketch. She even recognized that one. It was back in Monday, when Anna invited Elsa to the Chinese Restaurant. Elsa even got her clothes correctly, which was strangely creepy. There was another one of her sitting beside Elsa on a couch with an open book on the table in front of them. Anna recognized that one as their first tutorial session. Elsa even drew the fuzzy bunny slippers. But there was one strange thing about that particular sketch. Their hands were on top of each other and there were splashes of red on their cheeks. That didn't happen during the tutorial session.

Just as she was about to flip to the next page, a set of footsteps brought Anna back from her thoughts and she quickly opened the drawer and replaced the sketchbook before quickly closing it back again. Just as she settled into position, the door opened and Elsa went into the room, wiping her hands on her jeans. "Alright, let's continue."

Elsa settled down on the plastic chair beside Anna's and the redhead felt differently in her tutor's presence. Now she felt awkward and weird just being around Elsa after she saw those creepily accurate sketches of her.

"Anna?" Elsa prompted and Anna's eyes snapped to the blonde's arctic blue eyes. "Is something wrong?"

Anna went for a bashful grin. "Oh, uh, nothing. Nothing's wrong."

"Alright then." Elsa concluded and faced the open book on the desk. "Now, permutations are the possible arrangements of elements in a certain group." While Elsa was busy explaining, Anna returned to her earlier thoughts regarding what the sketches in Elsa's book could have meant. The detail applied to the drawings like her freckles or even the streak in her hair were all shockingly accurate. "Anna." Elsa's voice called out and she broke from her stupor. "Are you even listening?"

Anna turned to the blonde beside her and looked directly at her arctic blue eyes. "Uh, yeah." She answered.

Elsa reached for one of the sheets she pulled out earlier and took a pencil from the pencil holder. On it she wrote a sample question and passed the paper over to her tutee. "Then show me."

"Now? That was quick?" Anna complained.

"I've been ranting on here for about four minutes." Elsa replied flatly. "Plus, this is only a refresher." She handed her redheaded tutee the paper. "Now try to answer this."

Anna took the paper and Elsa handed her the pencil. Anna's fingers brushed against her hand when the redhead reached for the pencil. "Okay, let's see what I can do here."

"It's not that hard." Elsa explained. "I made it a bit too easy."

"Why?" Anna asked. "I'm not _that _hopeless."

'Maybe I am underestimating you." Elsa replied. "Show me I'm wrong."

"I already did. Remember? The test? Last week's tutorial?" Anna pointed out as she quirked an eyebrow.

Elsa grinned. "Just answer that."

Anna hunched over the paper and started writing down her solutions. Meanwhile, Elsa observed her tutee intently, admiring the way her platinum blonde streak gleamed when the sunlight struck it. Taking note of the way her brow furrows and her tongue pokes out of one corner of her mouth. A wisp. Of her fiery red hair fell in front of her face and Elsa watched as she blew it away.

"Say, Anna," Elsa began slowly and carefully phrasing the thought that had began to form in her mind. "How about after this, we go get some ice cream or something?" There's an ice cream parlor somewhere near here."

Anna was genuinely perplexed at the sudden invite. One reason is because it was Elsa who gave the invitation. She thought about Elsa's offer, but one keyword was enough to help her reach a conclusion: Ice Cream. "Sure." Anna answered and a she was sure she saw a slight blush spread on Elsa's cheeks and a triumphant glint develop in her cold blue eyes.

"Alright then. After we finish up on permutations." Elsa replied and Anna continued doing her work.

_Now who's the one who doesn't have the infatuation, _said Elsa's conscience.

_I said shut up. _Elsa replied mentally, taking care not to actually say her reply or else she may look weird in front of her tutee and maybe even hurt her feelings or put her in an awkward situation.

_You asked her out._

_Yeah, in a friendly manner._

_Are you so sure about that?_

_What are you implying?_

_Phase one: Denial._

Now Elsa felt a strange mix of success and regret for her choice of inviting Anna.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER X -=-=-=-**


	11. Chapter 11

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER XI -=-=-=-**

* * *

"So," Anna began and then she put the spoon full of chocolate rocky road in her mouth. "Why did you bring me here?" Elsa noticed something else in Anna's tone. It was inquisitive, but there was also a hint of suspicion. Caution, even. Something Elsa had never heard in Anna's voice before.

They were Sugar Rush, in the ice cream parlor a few minutes away from Elsa's house. Anna had a healthy serving of Rocky Road and Elsa was content with Double Dutch. The one who served them their selection of ice cream was.a little girl who looked like she was 12, with raven black hair tied in a ponytail and with decorations that looked like pieces of candy spread across her hairstyle. After the little girl left, Anna asked Elsa the question she just asked.

Elsa wracked her brains, trying to come up with a convincing answer to the unexpected query. "THink of this as a treat for you getting a high mark in those exams." Elsa said and gave herself a mental pat on the back. "And also as a way of thanks for inviting me to that Chinese restaurant. I just had to return the favor."

_Liar. _Elsa's annoying pest of a conscience said mockingly.

"Shut up." Elsa whispered.

"What was that?" Anna demanded with an edge in her tone.

Elsa's head snapped up to meet Anna's gaze. "Not to you," she replied. "I was just talking to myself."

"Well, be careful. You might end up like Remy." Anna said jokingly and chuckled. Remy was a French exchange student who came to Arendelle a month ago. He was scrawny and his hair was a tangled mess of blue-black. The strangest feature about him, however, was his imaginary friend. He would be seen talking to no one beside the bench he was sitting on, and when asked who he was talking to, he would say that he was talking to his friend Gusteau, a fat chef dressed in a chef's coat and toque and all. Anna laughed nervously along with Anna and for a moment, she considered giving her own second voice a name.

"I see no chance of that happening." Elsa replied and she took a bite of Double Dutch.

"So you draw in your spare time, huh?" Anna asked again.

"I think I have already made that clear." Elsa replied.

"Why didn't you want me to see your drawings?" Anna asked and raised an eyebrow.

Heat spread across Elsa's cheeks. "I feel like I'm being interrogated here." She said nervously. "It's just personal stuff. Nothing you need to know about." Elsa added, trying to hide the fact that there are sketches of her tutee in that sketchbook that would have provided anyone a hint as to her emotions. And she most certainly has to keep such thoughts hidden away from Anna.

To get Anna's thoughts away from her drawings, Elsa decided to change the topic. "How are your studies going?" Elsa asked to get Anna to think about something else other than that damned sketchbook.

"Going fine." Anna replied and she took another bite of ice cream.

"Mathematics?" Elsa asked. "Because that seems to be your weak spot."

Anna looked up from her bowl of ice cream, her cerulean eyes tinged with a hint of playfulness and mischief. Her eyebrow was cocked and a smirk curled her lips and Elsa thought whether or not Anna was _trying _to make her fall for her.

_Too late for that,_ said a familiar voice in her head. _You're already infatuated with her._

_I said shut it._

"Elsa? You all right there? You look like a lingonberry." Anna asked and Elsa snapped out of her mental argument. She noticed the heat in her cheeks and her ears and noticed that her fingers were nervously drumming on the table's underside.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Elsa replied. Anna giggled and Elsa felt the strange heat behind her ears intensifying. "Now," Elsa began to try and change the subject, "show me what you've learned. Probability of a heads in a coin toss."

"One-half." Anna replied.

"Rule used to solve for determinants."

"Cramer's rule." Anna smirked. "Come on, Els. Those are too easy."

"Formula of a permutation." Elsa asked and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Anna looked like she was trying hard to remember, given her pulling at strands of her hair and furrowing her brow. Finally, she smacked her forehead.

"I forgot. What was it again?"

"Factorial of n over the factorial of quantity n minus k."

"Oh yeah, that."

"You've still got a lot to learn, Anna." Elsa said and Anna laughed again. A clear, bright laugh that sent a flood of strange emotions coursing through her being.

"So, uh, what now?" Anna asked and Elsa scratched her head, not really thinking of what would happen after this particular segment of the day. "We go back to your place and get and start again?"

Part of Elsa wanted to get back to her house to avoid any more exchange of awkward moments with Anna - she even questioned why she invited Anna in the first place - but there was another part of her that wanted them to hang out a little bit more. She sat there, pondering on what course of action to take, taking into account what possible pros and cons each path could bring.

"Elsa?" Anna called out and Elsa snapped out of her stupor. "So..."

"Do you want to resume the tutorial session?" Elsa asked, finally reaching a decision without even knowing how she ended up making that choice. "Because we can, you know, hang out for a bit." Anna looked completely aback when Elsa posed her query and the redhead nodded a yes. Elsa mentally let out a deep her voice came back to pester her again.

_Where're you taking her this time, hotshot?_

"I hear they're still screening Frozen." Elsa asked and Anna looked even more surprised.

"The Ice Queen herself. The brightest of all students in school. The pinnacle of academic perfection. Is asking me to go to a movie" Anna said suspiciously. "Who are you and what have you done to Elsa?"

"Okay, we can just go back so I can barrage you with topics that is sure to make your brain bleed."" Elsa replied.

"Sounds like Elsa. And it sounds like she's asking me out."

_Ooh, she's onto you._

Elsa flushed immediately and heat spread from behind her ears to her face to her collarbone. She waved her hands quickly and she shook her head nervously. "N-no! Not like that! Not like that at all!"

"Then why are you so defensive?" Anna questioned and raised an eyebrow and smirked. Elsa reddened more. "Nah, I'm just messing with you." Anna said and grabbed Elsa by the wrist. That degree of contact with the redhead sent more blood into Elsa's face as Anna dragged her up. Together. they left the parlor, but Anna didn't break her firm yet gentle grip on Elsa's wrist. And Elsa didn't stop blushing like a moron along the way. Good thing Anna didn't look behind her to see Elsa's face take on an embarrassing shade of red.

* * *

"Oh, this is one of my favorite parts." Anna said as she and her tutor sat side by side, watching their favorite movie, a case of popcorn on the armrest that separated their seats. "_Olaf, did Elsa build you? Yeah, why? Do you know where she is? Yeah, why? Do you think you can show us the way? Yeah, why? _Honestly, Olaf looks like Olaf the snowman and he even speaks like him. I'm starting to think the directors were stalking us."

"Possibly. I see the same awkward klutz in that Anna in you." Elsa replied and grabbed a handful of popcorn.

"Yeah, and the fact that you can pull off the Elsa step in the middle of Let it Go justifies my hypothesis. Without the snowflake and the ice castle, of course." Anna added.

"And now I can really imagine our Olaf singing In Summer." Anna commented and Elsa giggled, one hand covering her mouth as she did so. Anna watched her tutor giggle and found it adorable for an odd and unknown reason. "You even look like Elsa when you do your cute giggle."

Elsa blushed immediately at Anna's statement. "W-well of course I look like myself when I giggle." She stammered out nervously. "Who else am I supposed to look like when I giggle?"

Anna laughed a little and Elsa can't help but shoot a sideways glance at the redhead. "No, I mean you and that Elsa look a like when you giggle." Anna's eyes shifted back to the screen. It was showing the scene in which Arendelle was struggling under the winter Queen Elsa had caused. "And the Duke of Weselton really looks like Mr. Weselton. They even have the same name. Duke."

Elsa giggled again. "Duke in Duke of Weselton is more of a title than a name."

"Okay." Anna replied and reached out to grab another handful of popcorn. But when her hand reached the container, Elsa's hand met hers as she tried to wrap her fingers on some popcorn. Anna shot a glance at Elsa, whose rosy pink cheeks took on a darker shade of red that was quickly spreading across her pale face. Elsa nervously retracted her hand immediately. Again, Anna found Elsa cute when she was like this, and she kept her eyes trained on how the blonde bit her lip and how her eyes nervously flitted between Anna and the big screen.

"So what're we doing after this?" Anna prompted.

"Go back. Resume the tutorial. Get you ready for that quarterly exam in two weeks." Elsa replied in one breath.

Anna nodded and returned her gaze to the movie. It was the scene in where Anna was already in the Ice Castle, talking to her sister. "That's a nice dress." Anna commented on Elsa's ice dress. "I'm just wondering, what would you look like in it? You'd probably look drop-dead gorgeous."

Elsa blushed upon hearing Anna's comment. "Don't be silly, I can't pull off the look of that dress."

"What if? You'd look amazing." Anna replied and Elsa's blush grew in intensity. "But those two.." Anna continued as she watched the exchange between the sisters. "I know they're sisters, but they make a great couple, don't you think? Elsa and Anna..." Elsa blushed even more fiercely but she tried to keep her face which was sure to be as red as a ripe apple hidden away from Anna. Luckily Anna kept er gaze on the screen, a dreamy look in her cerulean eyes.

"Yeah, they would." Elsa replied and upon realizing what she just said, she gave herself a mental slap. SHe was sure her second voice was laughing her ass off right now.

Anna blushed as well and avoided eye contact with the blonde for the rest of the movie. Though there were times in which they would give each other sideways glances and their gazes would meet occasionally, giving birth to an awkward, split-second moment.

"Okay, uh, the movie's done. We should probably go." Anna suggested when the credits started rolling and she stood. Elsa stood as well and together, they left the theater, not one word being exchanged between them as they returned to Elsa's house to resume the tutorial session.

* * *

"Like this?" Anna asked after she had drawn a graph of the sine trigonometric function.

"Exactly like that." Elsa replied, her hand on Anna's shoulder as she watched her tutee graph a cosine graph.

"Why are we even tackling Trigonometry?" Anna asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Because it'll be in the exam. Pabbie told me." Elsa answered. "Now continue making that cosine graph."

"Even what the graphs look like?"

"We haven't even started on how to derive trigonometric functions from other trigonometric functions."

"WHAT? There's more to this?"

"A lot more. You're going to have to learn how to get secant from one over sine and there are a lot others."

Anna slammed her head on the desk. "Just when I thought math couldn't get any harder."

"It's not going to be _that _difficult once you get the hang of it." Elsa replied and she rubbed Anna's back as she was still slumped over the desktop. "Now continue making that graph of a tangent. We haven't even gotten to the fun part about trigonometry yet and you're already giving up."

"I doubt that there's anything fun about trigonometry." Anna replied without lifting her head from the desk. "Unless you're a math genius or a masochist who loves suffering under math."

"Oh come on, math's not _that _stressful."

"Easy for you to say."

Anna's phone rang and she lifted her head from the desk, pulling out the phone from her pocket simultaneously. She swiped her finger across the screen and read the text message that flashed onscreen. "It's Hans." Anna told Elsa. "He said something important came up and my aunt and uncle want to talk with me and Hans." She stood up and grabbed her purse. "I've got to go. Bye, Els."

"Goodbye, Anna." Said Elsa as she watched the redhead head for the door. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You bet!" Anna replied and left the room. Elsa watched through the window and watched as the redhead ran out of the house and into the snow-covered street. She watched Anna run off to the distance, out of her line of sight.

Sighing, Elsa stacked the papers and inserted them into the open math book and closed it. She returned the math book to the stack of books beside the desk and pulled out her sketchbook from the drawer. Grabbing a pencil from the pencil holder,q she sat down on the seat and started drawing the image that formed in her mind that was inspired by the comment Anna made during the movie: '_But those two... I know they're sisters, but they make a great couple, don't you think? Elsa and Anna..._'

Her pencil flew over the paper, leaving trails of graphite as it went, drawing out the figure of the sisters hugging like in the scene Anna thawed. Except this time, Elsa wasn't wearing her ice dress and Anna wasn't wearing her winter clothes. Instead, they were wearing the exact same outfits non-movie Elsa and Anna wore. Elsa finished up the sketch, erasing the excess guidelines and darkening the outline and other details of the sketch until she was content with it. Her eyes were trained on the image she had created on the paper and admired every line, every curve, every detail of the finished product.

_Elsa and Anna sitting on a tree. _Her conscience began.

_Shut up..._

_HO-MO-SEX-U-A-LI-TY!_

_I SAID SHUT UP!_

Elsa shut the sketchbook and returned it to the drawer. Afterwards, slumped on the desktop, trying to clear her head of thoughts about the strangely captivating redhead, and failing miserably. She can't deny it now, and she can't bear to tell Anna since she might not return her affections and even worse, she might even turn her down and see her as a weird freak.

_Conceal, don't feel._

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER XI -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: Frozen characters watching Frozen inside a Frozen fanfic. FROZENCEPTION! Elsa and Anna shipping Elsanna inside an Elsanna fanfic. ELSANNACEPTION!**_

**Sorry for the late update, I was really, **_**really **_**busy even though it's summer vacation since I'm juggling between writing two fanfics and then there's the matter of other errands that I won't elaborate on since you probably won't want to see me rant. And in semi-unrelated news, "Lessons from the Ice Queen" has reached 300+ followers! Thanks you people and stay (HA) cool!**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	12. Chapter 12

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER XII -=-=-=-**

* * *

"Those walls of ice you built around yourself..." Elsa said as she paced the floor that night. She was dressed in her nightshirt and was ready to go to bed. "It took you years to build those, only to be broken down again. And by the most unexpected of people."

_You know what they say, Opposites Attract. _Elsa's inner voice whispered. _Why did you build those walls anyway?_

Elsa plopped down on the bed, the soft mattress cushioning her fall. "Well..."

_Well what? Is it because you're afraid to fall in love again?_ Her conscience said sharply. _Is it because you're afraid of getting built up only to be broken down once more? Did you shut yourself out because you don't want anyone in your life anymore? Is it because you're afraid of seeing them go?_

Tears were streaming down Elsa's cheeks as she listened to her own mind chewing her out. "Shut up." She grabbed a pillow from underneath her head and used it to cover her face. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

_And now you're in love with Anna. Those walls of ice around you are slow being melted by her. And it won't be long now before she figures out._

Elsa thought of what might happen should Anna find out. It could be good, filled with happy and fluffy times. Or it could be bad - she might not return her affections and maybe even decide to end their friendship because it got too awkward and that she found her weird. And she'll leave and leave Elsa devastated once again.

_...remember that fortune cookie?_

Elsa wracked her brains, remembering what the fortune cookie said. "The one you love is close?"

_Remember what you said?_

"Let it go."

_Exactly._ Her conscience said in a calmer, gentler tone. _Now think of this: why not let go of these walls of ice of yours? Why not let go of these restraints? They're only holding you back and now, look at you! You're a confused emotional wreck._

"I can't let her know! What if she pushes me away?"

_If you don't tell her, you'll be the one pushing her away. And it's both of you who will get hurt. You're going to have to fess up sooner or later._

"Shut your abstract mouth!" Elsa screamed into the pillow, her shout muffled by the soft cushion.

_That's all I am. An abstract concept. _The voice said and Elsa was stricken by surprise at the voice's admission. _A disembodied echo. A byproduct of loneliness born of depression and isolation. Something _you _created to keep you company behind those walls of ice. A tether to keep you from falling into madness._

"What?"

_I don't have a mind of my own. I don't even have a voice of my own. Because I am your mind, your voice. Your own subconsciousness calling out to you, telling you what you are really feeling no matter how many times you push it down and keep it hidden. In reality, you were never even talking to me per se. You were talking to yourself under the illusion that there is a voice inside your head talking to you when in fact it was only you all along talking to yourself without even knowing it was just you._

"Why are you telling me this?"

_Correction: Why am _I _telling _myself _this?_ _Because for the first time in two years, you actually socialized with somebody who was actually glad to be your friend. You're no longer lonely and those walls of ice are beginning to break down. You have no need for me anymore since there's already someone _tangible _you could go and communicate with. Someone you even fell in _love _with._

"Anna..." Elsa whispered the name of the redheaded girl who went from tutee to friend to love interest in a short span of time. Elsa waited for her other self to say something, but it didn't. For the first time in two years, it was actually silent. And Elsa was left there alone, only this time, not even her own thoughts were there to keep her company.

Elsa removed the pillow from her face and discovered that her tears had made a dark, soggy spot on the pillow. She hugged it tight like a teddy bear like she always does when she's going to sleep. And thoughts about the redheaded girl helped her fall asleep with vivid images of Anna's bright smile, or her sparkling blue eyes, or the mesmerizing platinum-blonde streak in her strawberry-blonde hair. Soon, she was snoring lightly and dreaming of Anna.

* * *

Anna was tossing and turning in her bed, the events of today keeping her wide awake and unable to sleep. Dried tears encrusted trails on her face that started from her eyes and down and her eyes were already red and puffy from crying until she had no more tears to cry with. The conversation with her aunt and uncle kept playing out in her head, a horrible and unshakable reminder of her tragic loss. And her sobbing only intensified when her memory decided to torment her with flashbacks of that one painful scene.

Anna received the message from Hans at about 2:00 earlier today, in the middle of her tutorial session with Elsa. She ran home and found her uncle and aunt on the couch with sad looks on their faces, Hans sitting on a chair he pulled from the kitchen, sitting opposite to their aunt and uncle.

"_Take a seat._" Their aunt said with grief in her voice.

Anna complied and sat on the couch beside her aunt. "_So, what's happening? What did you want to talk to us about?_"

"_It's about your parents._" Their uncle answered with absolute sadness evident in his voice.

"_Why? What happened to them?_"

They faced her at the same time, their chocolate-brown eyes filled with sorrow and remorse as unshed tears welled up beneath their eyeballs. "_You know that cruise ship your parents were on?_" Anna nodded reluctantly. "_It entered a storm and sank._"

ANna didn't believe her aunt and uncle and had the courage to laugh. "_Oh come on, auntie and uncle. Stop pulling my leg._"

"_But we're not._" Her aunt answered and sniffled. "_Their ship really did enter a storm and sank. Show her._"

Anna's uncle pressed a button on the remote and the TV flickered to life. It showed a scene of a vast expense of ocean, helicopters and other ships around the area. On the bottom of the screen was a marquee banner that said: _S.S. Arendelle sank. Rescue parties deployed to the area to search for any survivors. _Anna couldn't believe her eyes as she red the white text scrolling across the red banner. S.S. Arendelle was the name of the ship her parents were on and it sank.

Tears began to prickle her eyes as her lip began to quiver, shocked by the news that was screening on the TV. "No." Anna said reluctantly, refusing to believe the lies the media was telling her. "No, that can't be. They must still be alive." A hand touched her shoulder and Anna's head snapped to her aunt and uncle, their sad, sorrowful gazes meeting hers. "They're still alive," Anna said shakily, unable to believe her own words. "Aren't they?"

"Anna," her uncle began and swallowed a lump in his throat. "Your parents, they're..."

"They were the among the first to be found and declared dead." Her aunt finished with a shaky voice filled with grief. "They're gone."

Anna couldn't believe the words coming out of her aunt and uncle's lips. She turned to Hans, and her brother looked at her with bloodshot and puffy eyes full of agony and absolute sorrow. He nodded slowly and reluctantly as a tear slid down his cheek. Anna turned back to her aunt and uncle, an expression of sorrow, disbelief, and pain drawn across her face. Her aunt pulled her into an embrace and Anna wrapped her arms around the small, frail form of her aunt. Hot tears began to escape her eyes and slid down her cheeks, leaving warm, wet trails on the sides of her face as sobs escaped her lips. Her aunt caressed her back gently as her breathing got heavy and her sobs got louder. More tears cascaded down her face, falling to her aunt's shoulder in wet splotches.

"Let it all out." Her aunt said soothingly and Anna's heaving intensified.

"They're-they're dead..." Anna choked on her sobs as she spoke. Anna continued to cry for a lot more minutes, refusing to let go of her aunt as she cried on her shoulder. Hr aunt continued stroking her back gently as she heard everyone in the room contribute their own sad sobs to the chorus of sorrow.

Finally Anna let go of the embrace and her Aunt herd her at arm's length as her thumb brushed away the tears on Anna's cheeks. She tried for a smile, but Anna could see the grief evident in her aunt's and uncle's chocolate-brown eyes. After they made promises of offering monetary support in the stead of their parents, they said their goodbyes and left, leaving Anna and Hans to wallow in their loss and sorrow.

The house that used to be a calm haven for Anna turned into a chamber of emotional torment as every picture that hung on the wall showed the entire family in big, happy smiles. But now, those pictures that used to be good memories of happy experiences turned into a painful reminder that their family will never be whole again and that they would never lay eyes upon their parents' radiant smiles.

Anna picked up a framed picture that stood on the top of the shelf on which their TV stood. She dusted off the picture and stared at it, taking in every detail. It was a picture of the entire family in the beach dressed in beach clothes. They were all wearing big grins as Hans held the plastic beach ball, as her mom and dad held each other close, and as Anna's extended arm held the camera that was used to capture the selfie. She remembered that day - a bright and sunny day with the cool wind from the sea blowing in their direction. They took part in a game of family volleyball with Hans and dad versus Anna and mom. And Anna and her mom won. She remembered the prank she played on Hans when she put a crab in his swim shorts and watched and laughed as Hans danced to get the crustacean out. That was a fun day of family bonding. But now it was but a sad reminder that told them that it can no longer be. Fresh tears began to slide down her cheeks again and fall on the picture frame, leaving small, glistening splotches on the glass. And everywhere she looked, there were happy memories that were now nothing but painful reminders hanging on the walls. So she ran to her room and shut herself in there to prevent herself from seeing anymore of the horrible pictures, but her mind just dug up more memories of the entire family, making her burst out in tears every so often. She cried in her bed until the sun set and the moon rose. Her eyes were sore from crying and her throat was dry from her sobbing. Everything she saw was a memory that reminded her of her parents. Every memory was a fresh scar on her emotions, putting her in more emotional torment. And there she cried, her pillows and sheets already wet from her tears.

She looked to the clock and noticed that it was. Already ten in the evening. She had been wallowing in sorrow for eight hours straight without eating or even going to the bathroom. Her sadness must have made her forget about those things. And her sorrow must have made her lose the will to care. Tears were still streaming down her face and she buried her head into the pillow, sobbing until her own crying put her to sleep.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER XII -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: ...**_

**Thanks for the follows and reviews. Especially to Peace Sign Freak for giving those nice analyses. And I know that I may have done badly on that last chapter. I was just stressed out of my mind. Sorry about that. Until then.**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	13. Chapter 13

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER XIII -=-=-=-**

* * *

Anna had been absent from school for three days and didn't attend the tutorial, so Elsa got worried about her redheaded tutee. She decided to visit her that Thursday since they had no classes that day after the school announced a Personnel Day. She brought a box of chocolates with her since she knows how much Anna loves chocolate. She also decided not to tell Anna about the homework she missed and that she would just tell her in good time.

Elsa walked down the snow-covered pavement and went down the path that cut through the snow-covered lawn of Anna's house. She stood at the door and knocked five times. "Anna?" Elsa called out. "It's me, Elsa." No response. She called out again to get someone's attention. "Anyone there?" She waited a bit more. Still no response. "Maybe no one's home."

Before she could turn around and leave, she heard the sound of locks opening. The door opened and she found Anna's brother standing at the doorway dressed in semi-formal attire that consisted of a dark red button-up and black slacks with brown leather loafers. He must be dressed for work. "Oh, uh, Elsa, right?" He stuttered out confusedly.

"Yes. Where's Anna?" Elsa asked – and practically demanded – Anna's brother.

"She's upstairs, but I don't think she wants to see anybody at the moment…"

"Nonsense." Elsa answered and pushed through the man blocking the doorway. "Anna!" She called out. "It's me, Elsa! I brought chocolates!"

"Elsa?" A voice answered weakly from upstairs. Elsa watched patiently as Anna trudged down the staircase, her red hair mangled and messy, wisps of hair and rebellious strands sticking out in random directions. Under her eyes were heavy eye bags that have taken on a hideous shade of indigo. Her skin was paler and clammier than usual and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. She looked tired and messed up. "Hey." She said weakly with a hoarse voice.

"Anna, what happened to you?" Elsa asked out of bewilderment upon seeing Anna's state.

"It's okay, Hans. You can go." Anna said as she reached the foot of the staircase. Hans nodded and said goodbye and left the household, closing the door behind him. Anna took a seat on the couch and turned to Elsa with a pained smile on her face. "So, what's up?"

Elsa sat beside Anna on the couch and focused on the details of Anna's face, making her look more exhausted than she was before. Elsa reached out and touched Anna's cheek and practically caressed it, noticing the way Anna's skin felt cold as opposed to its usual warmth. Anna leaned her head toward her hand and Elsa felt a rush of heat in her cheeks. "Anna, what happened?" Elsa asked.

"I wasn't feeling well for the past three days." Anna answered weakly. "Sorry that I missed the tutorial. So, what happened in school while I was gone?"

"You look like you're not ready to know about that yet; you look messed up." Elsa said with concern.

"Messed up how?"

"Well, your hair's sticking out and there are bags under your eyes." Elsa commented on Anna's features. "And your eyes are red and puffy. Have you been crying?" Anna remained silent and Elsa traced her finger along Anna's cheeks, tracing the trails that went down her cheeks. "You _have _been crying. Why?"

Anna remained silent for a long time, her head looking down, her eyes with a distant, unreadable gaze. Elsa watched the redhead as she sat in silence. "It's okay. If you don't want to talk about it, then don't."

"They're dead." Anna answered finally with a sorrowful tone. "My parents. They're dead."

Elsa was shocked at what Anna said and at the same time felt sympathy for the redhead. "I'm sorry to hear that. How did they die?"

Elsa found the first tears welling up in Anna's eyes. "They…" Anna shut her eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek. "Their ship… it sank."

Elsa put her hand on Anna's back and rubbed gently. Anna buried her hands in her face and wept, and Elsa could hear Anna's breaths and she could feel her shoulders shaking. "They're dead…" Anna took Elsa by surprise when she suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. Elsa wrapped her arms around Anna and the mourning redhead put her head on her shoulder, and Elsa could feel Anna's tears soaking through her shirt. "And I never even got to say goodbye."

Elsa held Anna tighter and let Anna cry on her shoulder. Anna continued her crying, her sobs piercing the silence of the room, her tears soaking into the fabric of her shirt and making her shoulder wet. Elsa spent the entire time stroking Anna's fiery red hair in a comforting and soothing manner, and every now and then, Anna would turn her head and her face would fit into the crook of her neck, Anna's tears rolling from her eyes and rolling down Elsa's neck. Normally, Elsa would have been flustered at this amount of contact, but now that she saw Anna break down and cry in front of her, she felt not romantic affection for the redhead, but sympathy.

"I know how you feel, Anna. I lost my parents as well. I know how hard it is and I know what you're going through, but you'll be fine." Elsa said as reassuringly as she could, though she doubted if what she said was going to do any good. "You'll be okay."

"How- how would you know?" Anna replied, her sobs interrupting her speech.

"Everything has a beginning and an end, like how there is birth and there is death." _That didn't come out right._ "If there's a beginning to your sadness, then there's definitely going to be an end to it." Elsa said softly to Anna's ear. "You'll get through it."

"I don't know if I could…"

Elsa held Anna at arm's length and her eyes focused on Anna's face, how her tears rolled down her cheeks or how her lips quivered. "That's not the Anna I know." Elsa put her palm on Anna's cheek. "The Anna I know is a cheerful and optimistic little redhead. She's warm, bubbly, and always happy." Elsa brushed away her tears with her thumb and took Anna's face in both of her hands. She looked her in the eye and spoke softly. "She's not the sad and teary wreck before me right now."

Anna didn't meet Elsa's eyes. "Anna, sadness isn't for you. It could lead to depression, and depression, in turn, could lead to isolation. And trust me, isolation isn't a good thing." Elsa said softly. "It's shutting people out and being lonely, and it's not for you. You don't look like the lonely type." Elsa brushed away Anna's tears again. "Don't cry. You'll learn to let go and move on."

"How?" Anna asked and looked her straight in the eye. "How will I get over it?"

Elsa put her hands on Anna's shoulders and held her in a gentle grip. One hand was on Anna's cheek and Anna leaned into her palm once more. "Because," Elsa began and a smile tugged at her lips as she thought of Anna's good qualities, of which the redhead has in surplus. "You're persistent and strong-willed."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you never give up. Take me for example. You never gave up on asking me to help you even though I said no countless times. And eventually, I became your tutor."

"Yeah, only because you wanted me off your tail." Anna pointed out.

"Initially, yeah." Elsa agreed. "But then again, I eventually became your friend, didn't I? Yes, that's where your persistence takes you. So why give up now?" Elsa took Anna's hand in both of hers and Anna's head snapped up and her gaze met hers. Elsa gently squeezed Anna's hand. "Look, Anna, I know you can make it through this painful moment in your life. Why? Because I know that you never give up."

"I… I don't really feel like not giving up right now…" Anna answered quietly and she once again avoided Elsa's gaze.

"I know it's gonna be hard and that it's going to take some time, but you'll eventually get over it, trust me." Elsa released Anna's hand and she folded her hands on her lap. "And if you ever need help, I'll be here for you."

Anna shyly met her gaze. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, you looked like you really needed to talk about it."

Anna smiled a bit and her eyes brightened. "Thanks. Who knew that the coldest, most isolated girl in the school, or maybe the entire city, could be such a cool friend? Pun intended."

"See? You're already going back to your former, joyful self if you're already making puns. But as I said, it'll take time." Elsa said and took the box of chocolates she brought and opened it, showing an assortment of chocolates arranged in a grid. There were caramel-glazed chocolates and even chocolates covered with chocolate. Anna eyed the box of chocolates and Elsa knew then that she made the right choice bringing chocolates with her. "Yeah, I got these for you."

"Why?" Anna asked with a smirk and a cocked eyebrow.

Elsa immediately felt a blush rushing to her cheeks after Anna asked that question. She brought the chocolates since it would seem like a friendly thing to do which was actually a disguise for her way of showing affection. So she immediately went for an excuse to hide why she really brought the chocolate because Anna was in enough distress following the loss of her parents, and she didn't want to add her confession to Anna's pile of problems. "What? I knew you really liked chocolate, so why not?"

"Okay." Anna answered.

Elsa picked up a piece of chocolate and held it close to Anna's mouth. Anna took the chocolate Elsa was offering to her. She chewed on it with a smile on her face that Elsa found cute and the blush on her cheeks spread to her ears. "See, now you look better. Looks like all you needed was some chocolate."

"Elsa?"

"Hmm?"

"Why'd you decide to visit me?" Anna asked and swallowed the chocolate she was chewing on. "And what are you doing here? Isn't today a school day?"

"Well, you've been absent for some time now and I got concerned and I wanted to see how you were doing." Elsa replied. "And there are no classes today; Personnel Day."

"Oh." Anna said. "Why'd you get concerned?"

"As I said, you've been absent from school for three days and I wanted to see how you were holding up." Elsa answered. "For a while, I even thought that you were dead."

"Well, you were right about the 'dead' part. Just the wrong person." Anna said with false enthusiasm evident in her voice and Elsa could see tears welling up in the redhead's eyes.

"How about this, why don't you find yourself something to get your mind off of the pain? Something to distract you."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, what do you like doing?"

Anna sadly looked down. "As of now, I don't even know."

"Would you like to go for a walk in the park? It might distract you from… you know." Elsa suggested and Anna looked up and nodded slowly. "Great. After you wear warm clothes, we can go out for a stroll in a snow-covered park."

* * *

Anna and Elsa were all dressed in warm clothing like sweaters and scarves and mittens. Elsa was wearing a light blue sweater, a white scarf covering her neck. Anna was more heavily dressed under a light blue sweater with pink gloves and black boots. She was wearing a pink cloak with a matching pink cap.

"So, feeling better yet?" Elsa prompted.

"A little." Anna replied, her voice clear of the sorrowful tinge it carried earlier. "But one thing I've been thinking of for a while now is how much you've changed. I mean, you've changed a lot."

"Changed how?"

"Like, you're no longer much of an Ice Queen." Anna answered. "Sure you're still cold to people, but there are times when I see you really softening up and being all kind and friendly, unlike the Elsa I was met with when I first asked you to be my tutor."

"Indeed."

"Why _is _that?"

"Really, I don't know." Elsa replied, still hiding the fact that perhaps it was her feelings for the redhead that was the catalyst of her change as was stated by her other voice – who had been silent for the whole week. "Maybe being around you has finally made some of your traits rub off on me."

"Huh." Anna said and together they sat on a bench under a leafless tree whose branches were covered with snow.

"What do you want to do next?" Elsa prompted. Anna looked around and a smile curled her lips.

"Do you wanna build a snowman?"

"Why do I feel like I should be the one asking you that?" Elsa replied and Anna stood from the bench enthusiastically. Elsa mentally commended herself for bringing Anna back from the sad state she saw her in earlier.

She followed suit and settled beside Anna, who was gathering an entire clump of the soft, white powder. She rolled it into a ball and set it on the ground. Elsa gathered her own clump of snow which she turned into a big snowball, and put it on top of the bigger blob of snow. Anna created an oval shape from the snow and put it on top, making the head.

"It's still missing something…" She mused as she inspected the unfinished snowman.

"You think?" Elsa questioned as she raised her eyebrows. Anna snapped her fingers and gathered three pebbles and put them into the snowman's chest, giving it buttons. Elsa picked up some twigs and stuck it in the snowman's sides, giving it arms. And Anna got three more sticks and put them into the snowman's head like the sticks were hair.

Anna clasped her hands and appreciated her work. Elsa stepped in, inspected the snowman, and shook her head. Anna turned to her with a half-irritated glare. "What?"

"Don't you think it's missing something else?" She prompted with a suggestive tone. "Something we use to _see?_"

Anna narrowed her eyes at the snow sculpture, then her eyes widened in realization. "It _is _missing something Elsa!"

Anna just made a pun about Elsa's name. A good sign that Anna was recovering from her bout of sadness. "Did you just-" Before she could finish, Anna ran off and returned with two stones and a carrot. Where she got the carrot, Elsa had no idea. Anna knelt in front of the snowman and put the stones on its face, making eyes. She made something else from the snow and inserted it into the snowman's mouth. It was a bucktooth. She then put the carrot on the snowman's snout to make a carrot nose.

Anna stood and backed up to get a better view of the snowman, which eventually led her to sit on the bench. Elsa followed and sat beside Anna, who made a rectangle with her fingers and inspected the snowman they just built. "Yeah, it's done." Anna faced Elsa, the redhead's face happy and not carrying even the slightest hint of grief, unlike before. "Don't you think?"

"It looks done." Elsa commented. "Truth be told, this is the first time in years since I've built a snowman."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, isolating yourself really limits what you do." Elsa replied. "That's why I said that isolation wasn't meant for you since you aren't the type of person who would want to have your actions limited." Anna laughed – a clear laugh of pure happiness.

_Look at her. _Elsa thought to herself. _Someone like her, a friendly and bubbly and always positive girl. She doesn't deserve sadness. She doesn't deserve the problem she's facing right now. She should be like this all the time. The Anna everyone is familiar with. The happy and cheerful Anna whose mere smile is enough to brighten anyone's day._

"Elsa?" Anna began but Elsa barely registered the redhead's voice. Her eyes glanced downwards, falling on Anna's lips. And before she could stop herself, she found herself leaning in, their faces coming closer with every creeping second. Their eyes slowly slid shut as their faces neared each other and the world around them was shut out as they only focused on each other and how close they were.

But the sound of a ringing phone ruined it.

Their eyes snapped open in surprise and they immediately sat up straight, avoiding eye contact with each other as deep shades of red colored their cheeks. Elsa pulled her phone from her pocket and read the message from her Aunt Gerda.

"It's my aunt. She wants to know where I am." Elsa said, frustrated at the sudden interruption.

"Didn't you tell her where you were going?" Anna asked, still avoiding her gaze.

"Yeah, I told her. She just wants me back home for lunch. Looks like grandma and grandpa are visiting and they want all of us to eat together."

"Oh, well, okay." Anna said.

"Here, I'll just accompany you on the way home, is that okay?"

Anna nodded and Elsa helped her up. Together they walked back to Anna's house, not a single word exchanged between them as they went. They didn't even do so much as glance in each other's general direction along the way. The awkward tension still hung heavy in the air between them.

"Here we are. Goodbye, Anna. And remember, don't cry too much. You'll ruin your pretty face with your gross sobbing." Elsa told Anna as she watched her walk down the path that cut through the snow-covered lawn.

"Okay, ma'am. I won't." Anna opened the door and stepped into the house. "Bye, Els. Thanks for the talk." Anna shut the door.

Elsa started heading home, all the while thinking about the events that occurred in the park earlier.

_Elsa, you idiot. _She mentally scolded herself. _That was close._

_And now she knows._

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER XIII -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: Ehehehe**_

**Hey guys. I just noticed that this hit 400+ followers and I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I love you people. You all stay chill.**

**And I seriously planned on uploading this one earlier (perhaps yesterday, even? idk) because I had a mighty need to write this chapter, but I just got distracted by JOLLY PROCRASTINATION! PRAISE THE TUMBLR!**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	14. Chapter 14

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER XIII -=-=-=-**

* * *

Anna was still devastated by her parents' untimely death, but she had the strength to go to school the next day after Elsa cheered her up and pulled her out of her depressed state. She was attending classes that Friday after three days of being absent, but she didn't want to talk to anyone just yet for she may seem okay externally, but internally, the scars of her loss were still seared into her memory, the pain still fresh in her mind. She was breaking up inside, her pain worsening with every consecutive "I'm sorry" and "My condolences", which is why she avoided communication with everyone except Elsa, the one who understood her pain and the only one she felt like talking to.

Interactions in school between Elsa and Anna were awkward that Friday. Mostly Elsa. And even though the blonde stayed away from humans and immersed herself in silence and isolation, Anna knew that the blonde acting awkwardly because instead of keeping her cool and collected atmosphere, Elsa was jittery whenever Anna was around. She even stammered when she talked. Completely unusual for Elsa. Whether be it in the classroom or the cafeteria or anywhere else, as long as Anna was around, Elsa acted weird and completely unlike herself. But despite that, the blonde still tried, and sometimes failed, to regain her composure.

Anna knew the reason behind the blonde's sudden awkwardness. It was the events of yesterday. Anna already knew that Elsa held feelings for her, and yesterday was the result of her laying her feelings bare. Now Elsa knows that Anna knows and that made the blonde so jittery in her presence.

Now that that was Saturday, the second-to-the-last tutorial session with Elsa before the quarterly exams, Anna had to go since she missed three days of school and she knows just how tricky school is. One's going to miss a lot if you're absent for even a day. She had to catch up to what she missed and Elsa was the one who was going to help her with that. Anna insisted that she go despite Elsa telling her that she might be able to use more time to herself to recover from the loss that obviously haunts her still. In the end, Elsa agreed to help Anna catch up on what she missed on the condition that Anna not bawl during the tutorial.

Anna now stood on the porch of Elsa's house. She knocked on the door and it was opened by a stout woman smiling at her. It was Elsa's aunt, Gerda. "Oh, you're here." Gerda said with her usual gleeful tone. She ushered Anna into the house and invited her to sit on the sofa. Gerda sat on the couch opposite from the sofa and offered her a cup of tea which had been sitting on the coffee table between the two seats and Anna wondered if making tea was among aunt Gerda's early morning to-do list. "Elsa's been worried sick about you since last Sunday when you didn't go here. She even helped me bake a fresh batch of biscuits for you."

"Worried sick, huh?" Anna mused as she sipped on the cup of hot tea.

"Oh yes. She was pacing the floor in her room for two hours." Gerda answered. "She was even muttering to herself, wondering where you were. And then when she told me that you said that you weren't feeling well, she got even more worried. Especially. When you didn't go to school for three days."

"Oh?"

"She's really attached to you." Gerda said and put down her own cup of tea on the wooden coffee table. "She may be cold and distant, but she's clingy to those who can get close to her. And for someone to get close to her after years of shutting everyone out, I've expected her to be _very _clingy and attached. Thirteen years of loneliness has made her hungry for friendship and affection."

"Thirteen years?" Anna asked incredulously, unwilling to believe that Elsa shut everyone out for thirteen long years.

"Yes. Before she became the distant and isolated 'Ice Queen' you were initially met with, she was once a cheerful little child whose mere presence was enough to brighten everyone's day." Gerda said, a smile curling her lips. "She was a very smart girl and would spend a lot of time in her father's study, browsing the various books in the shelves. Her father would even read her stories of myths and legends before bed. She was also very talented. She knew how to draw and she would often share her drawings with the entire family. And there was nothing more precious than the smile that grew on her face whenever her parents would commend her for her talent and post her drawings on the fridge. Yes, she was a joyful child, she was. But now, she's cold towards people. She's the complete opposite of who she once was."

"What forced her into isolation?" Anna asked, curious as to what happened to Elsa and why she cut herself off from others.

"The death of her parents." Gerda answered with a sad tone. "They died in a fire trying to save her. Poor girl, she was so young. She was only five years old, yet she was forced to watch her parents suffocate and burn to death. She was very attached to her parents, and their death greatly traumatized her. We took her in after my brother and sister-in-law's deaths, and soon, she began to feel attached to us as well. She was recovering from her sadness and started returning to her former, happy self. She even thought of us as her 'second parents'. But then there was the death of my husband, her uncle Kai. She was very attached to him as well and she treated him like her father and he treated her like his daughter. But when he died in a car crash, she locked herself in her room for two weeks, mourning over the loss of three beloved family members. She wouldn't come out to eat and all attempts at communicating with her have failed. I had to bring her food on a tray in font of her door and leave it there and just collect it when she has eaten." The woman wiped a tear from her eye and sniffled. "When she finally left her room, she was a changed girl. She was no longer the happy child we once knew, she had become a depressed and isolated girl who didn't acknowledge anyone around her. She was so young. That's why she was so vulnerable to despair. And then, at the age of fourteen, I was beginning to believe that she was finally opening up to others because I saw her smile and socialize more often and with real people. I was glad to see Elsa opening up to others, but after a year, she started shutting everyone out again."

"What happened?"

"As you can see, Elsa is a very beautiful young girl, and at the age of fourteen years old, a lot of the boys in her past school wooed her. She was so desperate for love that she's been in three relationships in two years, and all three of her partners betrayed and hurt her one way or the other. She started to isolate herself again to keep people from getting too close to her so that she won't get hurt again." Gerda said with a morose tone. "Now she's met you and she's slowly started to open up again. But I know that she still fears being hurt and abandoned. Why, just last Saturday night, she was crying in her sleep and calling out your name, pleading for you not to leave her."

Anna reflected upon that for a while. Elsa in her bed, tossing and turning, tears streaming down her cheeks as she calls out her name, begging her not to go. Anna had no idea just how lonely Elsa really was and why she isolated herself. She had no idea how much she craved affection and she had no idea how many times she'd been hurt over the course of her life. Anna then reflected on how hard Elsa's life was. The blonde certainly had it harder than her. It was her who was supposed to be comforting Elsa, not the other way around since Elsa went through a lot more than she did.

"She went into isolation after that brief moment of opening up." Gerda continued. "Now that she's met you, I can see her abandoning her loneliness once more, and as her aunt, that makes me really glad, seeing that my niece is finally beginning to socialize. I know that this is selfish of me, but I ask of you, please don't let her get hurt and please don't hurt her like the others did. Seeing how close she is to you, if she gets hurt, it'll break her."

Anna's expression softened. "I won't." She promised. She didn't want to see Elsa hurt and in tears. After all the blonde's been through, Anna was sure that Elsa couldn't take more suffering. The sound of footsteps behind her made her look over her shoulder. She watched Elsa descend the staircase and stop midway. She was dressed in a simple, blue shirt and jeans. Her platinum-blonde hair was beautifully braided and her face was as immaculate as ever.

"Anna, you're here," said Elsa, her icy blue eyes meeting her own. "You've missed a lot, so I'm going to have to teach you a lot. Come upstairs when you're ready." Elsa climbed up the staircase and disappeared from sight.

Anna turned to Gerda, whose expression changed to that of a happy one. Anna figured that she was joyed since Elsa had someone to call 'friend' after thirteen years of loneliness. "Thanks for the tea, aunt Gerda." Anna put the teacup on the tabletop. She had taken to calling Gerda 'Aunt Gerda' after the woman insisted that she refer to her as such. Anna went up the stairs and entered Elsa's room. Elsa was sitting on the seat beside the desk near the window and was looking directly at her. The blonde stood up, and without even knowing, Anna's heart reached out to Elsa, and soon, she was running toward the blonde and she took her in an embrace. She felt Elsa stiffen then relax after a while.

"Whoa, Anna," said Elsa in a shaky voice. "What's with the sudden display of affection?"

"Elsa, loneliness isn't for you." Anna said to the blonde without lifting her head to meet her gaze. "You deserve better. You deserve to be happy, not lonely or isolated."

"What are you talking about?" Elsa stammered. "I'm the one who should be saying that to you, not the other way around!"

"I had no idea how lonely you really were." Anna answered without looking up. "I'll be here for you and I'll never leave you."

Anna was surprised to feel arms wrapping around her waist as Elsa pulled her into the hug. Anna held the blonde tighter, and there they stood in each other's arms for a long while.

"Thank you, Anna." Elsa whispered into her ear and she held her at arm's length. Anna could see the blonde's eyes filled with joy, appreciation, admiration, and affection. Something she's never seen in Elsa before. Elsa's cold and hard icy blue eyes even softened and seemed more like a shade of calm and tranquil sky blue. "Thank you." She said once again. Elsa nodded to the desk, which was piled with books and notebooks. "Now, you've missed three days of school and the teachers practically barraged us with a torrent of lectures. And as your tutor, it is my job to teach you what you missed, so let's get started, shall we?"

Anna nodded and moved to the desk. Elsa took the seat beside her. There they sat, Elsa helping Anna catch up on what she missed and Anna listening to her tutor's instructions intently. And the redhead was glad to see pure happiness in Elsa's eyes for the first time.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER XIV -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: Too tragic? Did I go overboard with the tragic here?**_

**I know this is **_**super**_** late, sorry about that. It's just that I had to travel because the college I applied for was far from my hometown and I had no time to write another chapter since I was busy with life and college applications. If anyone's curious, I've chosen Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science. Biology and Chemistry (but mostly Biology) combined, I can see nothing bad. As long as I survive the academic ass-whooping the professors are certain to be generous of.**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


	15. Chapter 15

**-=-=-=- CHAPTER XV -=-=-=-**

* * *

Elsa was invited by Anna to her parents' burial on Sunday, two days after their drowned bodies were found. They went to the funeral home dressed in black. They went to the funeral home side-by-side with Anna's brother, Hans. Elsa had Anna's arm intertwined with hers the entire way from the parking lot to inside the funeral home, and Anna often leaned her head against Elsa's shoulder. And Elsa would comfortingly stroke her friend's strawberry-blonde locks.

They found the room designated for Anna's parents and entered through the varnished oaken double doors. The room's floor was composed of polished marble that reflected their images. The walls were made of cement painted white, and four columns set in the four corners of the room were constructed from marble as well. The golden light from the chandelier spilled into the entire room and sconces that emanated white light contributed to illuminating the room, adding to the area's ambience. Benches made of dark wood whose varnished surfaces reflected a bit of the golden light from the chandelier.

The scent of incense hung heavy in the room, mixed with the scents of assorted perfumes and old people. One of the girls there, a woman about as old as Elsa and with the same fiery red hair as Anna, rose from her seat and went for Anna. Anna let go of Elsa's arm and she the other redhead in a hug. "Hey, Ariel." Anna said to the other redhead in her arms.

"Hello, Anna. Hey, Hans," said the other redhead, Ariel. "I'm so sorry about your loss."

"It's okay." Anna laughed, though Elsa could still hear uncertainty in her voice. "Elsa here's helping me get through this difficult part of life."

Ariel pointed a finger at Elsa. "She's the Elsa you've been talking about?" The redhead asked. "The Elsa who's been helping you out? The Elsa you've been talking so highly of? The Elsa you've been talking about like-"

"That'll be enough." Anna intervened with a flush blossoming on her cheeks. "Elsa, this is Ariel. Ariel, Elsa."

Ariel let go of Anna and strode towards Elsa and outstretched her hand. "I'm Ariel Waters, A cousin of Anna's."

Elsa warily eyed the redhead's outreached hand and she took it in a slight handshake. "Elsa Andersen," said she in her usual flat tone, even stiffening by a bit at the physical contact.

"So you're Anna's tutor?" Ariel asked without really letting go of her hand.

"Yes." Elsa answered flatly.

"So, how's she doing? With the tutorials, I mean."

"She's doing well." Elsa replied and she lightly tugged on her hand and pulled it free from the redhead's grasp.

"Is she having any difficulties or something?"

"Little to none."

"Wow, the quiet type." Ariel commented. "No wonder you-"

"Okay, Ariel. Geez." Anna said as she ushered – or rather, pushed – Ariel away with an awkward and lopsided grin on her slightly redder face.

"Would you mind telling me what that was about?" Elsa asked Anna, who stood beside her again.

"Eh, nothing," replied Anna with that same dorky grin on her face.

"Really? Because I had the feeling that she was talking about me." Elsa pressed.

"Nah." Anna replied with a shaky and innocent tone. "She's crazy."

"She uses forks to brush her hair." Hans pointed out.

"And calls them 'dinglehoppers'." Anna added.

"Hey!" The voice of Ariel called out and other folks shushed her.

"Hans!" Another masculine voice called out and their heads turned to the source of the voice.

"Eugene!" Hans replied and tackled the other man in a hug. Elsa looked around and found two white coffins located in the far end of the room. Anna walked to the coffins and Elsa followed close behind, a hand on the redhead's shoulder as they walked past rows of benches with people who might have been Anna's relatives.

In the coffins, under the layer made of glass, were Anna's parents. Anna's father, Akthar, had the same strawberry-blonde hair and a fine pencil mustache. Her mother, Idunn, had dark brown hair and a serene look on her face. Now Elsa knows where Anna gets her looks from.

"They look so peaceful." Anna said and Elsa could hear her voice breaking up. "I never even got to tell them goodbye or 'I love you'. I didn't even know what their last words were."

Elsa put her hand on Anna's shoulder and lightly squeezed it as she looked upon Anna's deceased parents. "Well, you can tell them that you love them anytime. I'm sure that they're listening."

Elsa could see the first tears roll down Anna's cheeks as her shoulders shook. Her tears dripped from her chin and cheeks and dropped to the glass of the coffins, making wet splotches on the glass surface. "How can they be listening if they're-they're…?"

Elsa turned Anna so that she faced her, and she put her hands on her cheeks and brushed away her tears from her cheeks with her thumb. "Their bodies may not be listening to you, but I'm sure that their spirits are. I bet that they're right here right now, maybe even standing right beside you and watching. And I don't think that they'd like to see their strong, feisty, redheaded daughter cry."

Anna's sobs intensified, and Elsa pulled Anna closer and into a hug, stroking Anna's red locks comfortingly as her shoulder and her neck got wet from Anna's tears. Elsa fished a white handkerchief from her pocket and held Anna at arm's length and wiped her tears for her.

"But there are still times in which you have to cry." Elsa added and she took Anna in another embrace. She was a shoulder for Anna to cry on, a friend who was going to help her get through this difficult time in her life, a person who's love for the redhead made her determined to see her happy and to not let her spiral into depression like her.

The priest who was going to preside over the ceremony entered the room, and Anna took one long last look at the bodies in the coffins before taking a seat on the bench in the front row.

The next hour was full of tears and sobs, especially from Anna and Hans, as they recalled the lives of their parents. By what Elsa has heard from Anna, Hans, and their relatives, Elsa could tell that they were good parents – which explains Anna's sunny demeanor and her heart of gold. Elsa always had Anna's hand in hers, a source of friendly comfort for the redhead. And whenever Anna had to cry, Elsa let Anna put her head on her shoulder and cry as her other hand gently patted the redhead's back. And that happened often, so Elsa's shoulder was already soaking wet when the coffins were transported to the cemetery.

"Hey, Elsa," Anna prompted with a shaking voice as they followed the vans that carried the coffins.

"Hmm?"

"Do you believe in an afterlife?" Anna asked. "Where do you think they are right now?"

"From what I've heard from you and your relatives," Elsa began, recalling the ceremony held earlier and the words spoken on behalf of Anna and Hans's parents. "I'd say that they were good people and that they're in a better place."

Snow started falling slowly from the sky and Anna stretched her arm, her palm upturned and caught some of the snow in her hand. "Snow. I remember when mom and dad used to play with me in the snow."

"Stop viewing everything as a painful reminder." Elsa told the redhead. "You'll forget how to see the good in other people."

They continued following the vehicles that carried Akthar Summerfield and Idunn Summerfield towards the cemetery, where they will be buried.

The burial elicited more tears from Anna. She was beside the redhead the whole time, her arm in hers as they watched the bodies be buried into the ground, the gentle falling of the snow opposing the morose atmosphere of the burial. When the pits were filled with earth, everyone has left, including Hans, who went back to the funeral home's parking lot to retrieve his car so that he can get the two ladies home. The snowing has stopped, yet it was still cloudy, and only Anna and Elsa were left at the graves of Akthar and Idunn Summerfield.

"Elsa?" Anna prompted, still with a shaky voice from sobbing. Tears were still rolling down her cheeks.

Elsa tuned Anna to face her and she cupped her hand on Anna's cheek and wiped away her tear with her thumb. "Yes?"

Anna put her hand over Elsa's and she leaned her head into Elsa's hand. "Thanks for coming here. I really needed a shoulder to cry on. You've really helped me a lot. Thanks."

Elsa smiled back at the redhead. "What are friends for?"

They were right there, standing in the silence, the cool winter breeze blowing. They stood there alone and so close to each other. Alone in the silence that was broken only by the whistling of the breeze and by the chirping of a few birds.

"They're in a better place." Elsa told Anna as she put her other hand on Anna's cheek. "You should be happy for them and not be too sad. I don't think they'd like seeing you cry."

"Elsa?"

"Hmm?"

Anna removed Elsa's hands from her face and Anna cupped her hands on Elsa's cheek and pulled her close. Anna pressed her lips to Elsa's, the redhead's lips soft against hers. Instinctively, Elsa's eyes slid shut and her mind went AWOL as she lost all thought while their lips were pressed together, the only thing in her mind being Anna.

Every muscle in her body that had tensed had relaxed, and her arms wrapped around Anna's waist as they held the kiss.

Anna pulled away first, and their eyes opened to find each other with deep shades of red on their faces. Elsa's mouth was still slightly open, wanting the kiss to have lasted longer.

"What was that about?" Elsa asked, still dumbstruck as her mind tried to recover from its brief shutdown to process and register what just happened.

"That was me saying thanks for being here for me." Anna answered and she took Elsa's hands and squeezed them lightly. "Also, that was me making the first move since you always looked too afraid to do it."

"H-how…?"

"I may or may not have looked into your sketchbook." Anna winked at Elsa's reddened face. "Nice drawings, by the way."

"There you two are!" A voice called out and they turned to follow the source of the voice. It was Hans, walking towards them.

"So, I'll see you in school tomorrow?" Elsa asked the redhead.

"You bet. I'm not missing the last few days before that exam." Anna answered and together went with Hans to his car. The trip home had a lot of awkward tension between Elsa and Anna, and their hands were on top of each other. Hans didn't notice. Anna's brother dropped Elsa off at her house, and when Elsa finally got into her room and changed into something more comfortable, she sat at her desk, pulled out her sketchbook from the drawer, took a pencil, and drew.

Her pencil danced at the paper's surface, leaving trails of graphite on the paper. Finally, her latest sketch has been finished and Elsa appreciated every line, every curve, and every detail of the drawing. A smile curled her lips.

It was that scene between her and Anna.

Certainly one she'd like to remember.

* * *

**-=-=-=- END OF CHAPTER XV -=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: What am I supposed to say now? Uh, hi? Oh, and thanks for the 200 favorites!**_

**SORRY FOR THIS HELLA LATE AND BADLY-WRITTEN CHAPTER! I was disconnected from the internet for some time and there were stuff I had to do and I was haunted by the dreaded Writer's Block and then out of nowhere: surprise pressure for some unfathomable reason that I can't think straight! *cries***

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**

.


	16. Chapter 16

**-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- CHAPTER XVI -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-**

* * *

"Tell me, why are you here?" Elsa asked the redheaded girl who just settled down beside her at the bench just outside the school. Students were coming out of the school in a continuous stream, chatter filling the air. That was the last of their quarterly exams and the students have received their well-earned respite. And all was calm and quiet soon after the students have left the vicinity of the school and only Elsa and Anna remained.

"Come now, no need to be so cold." Anna replied and she put her hand over Elsa's. Even though they formally recognized the fact that they were in a relationship as of the moment and that it all started at the cemetery of all places, Elsa still couldn't help but stiffen at physical contact, even though it was Anna who was touching her. But still, it was easier to be around Anna. And it was easier to relax around her because unlike others, she held nothing back and she doesn't lie – mostly because she's horrible at lying – but that's what made Elsa ease her tension more easily in the redhead's presence.

"Sorry, I'm still not accustomed to the entire 'physical contact' thing." Elsa replied as she tried for a grin.

"Not yet used to it? I've been crying on your shoulder the whole day yesterday! You kept pulling me into hugs for the past week!" Anna snapped back, her voice not angry but rather humorous. "And you didn't even flinch! Don't you tell me that you're not accustomed to physical contact!"

"Alright, alright, fine." Elsa replied as she laughed. She upturned her hand underneath Anna's and grasped the redhead's hand.

"See? Not so hard, isn't it?" Anna said as she lightly squeezed her hand.

"How were the exams for you?" Elsa asked after a moment of silence with just them, their hands in each other's.

"They went great!" Anna exclaimed happily, and Anna's happiness extended to Elsa. That plus a sense of pride, knowing that her tutee has done great.

"I can tell. You were the second fastest one out there."

"Second?" Anna arched a questioning eyebrow as a playful smirk grew on her face.

"You have yet to beat me."

"May be."

"The tutorials really paid off, huh?"

"Yeah, they really helped. Go on, ask me."

"I won't." Elsa answered and took a swig from the bottle of water she had. "I already trust your talents enough that I won't even ask you to verify."

"Come on, please?" Anna kept poking Elsa's arm again and again. When she first did that, Elsa was annoyed by the redhead's repetitive poking, but now, she is amused by Anna's playful gestures. "I need to know whether or not I'm doing good!"

"Fine." Elsa laughed and she gently brushed Anna's finger aside. "A function with y=x^2."

"Uh, it's an exponential function, right?"

"You sound unsure of yourself." Elsa said. "But you're right. That was the parent formula for exponential functions."

"Hey." Anna prompted. "If I were a function, you'd be the asymptote." Elsa cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Because I'd always tend towards you."

"Yes, but you always forget that in exponential functions, the graph and the x-axis – which is the asymptote in this case – never meet." Elsa pointed out.

"Well in that case, I must be a logarithmic function, because logarithmic functions can meet and cross the x-axis." Anna said with a sly grin on her face, her eyebrows raised as if waiting for a response.

"Did you just try out a pick-up line on me?" Elsa asked, confused, astounded, and amused by the redhead's application of mathematics to cheesy pick-up lines.

"Yeah, I always wanted to use a pick-up line."

"But on me? I thought we were…"

"Well, I've never actually gotten to flirt with you!"

"_You _are flirting with _me._"

"Why not?" Anna shrugged, a grin on her face. "Here we are, girlfriends, and yet none of us has actually flirted with each other yet!"

Elsa cringed at the word _girlfriend._ "What's wrong?"

"I'm just not really accustomed to being referred to as such." Elsa explained, the word invoking memories of her past. Memories that she thought to have been buried under miles of ice and snow, memories that were better left forgotten.

"Why not?"

"I'm sure that you know." Elsa snapped back quickly, but her tone was clear of anger. "Aunt Gerda already told me that she told you. Actually, it was more like me overhearing your conversation."

"You overheard that talk? I guess you have a sense of hearing with a measure less than ninety degrees."

"Measure less than ninety… acute. An acute sense of hearing." Elsa answered and Anna perked up. "Oh, ha-ha."

"But still, was it the one with the three boys?"

"That one." Elsa recalled the three who used to call her their girlfriend. "They considered me to be their girlfriend, but then they all left me. That word is a link to my past – a past that I would have wished to be concealed and forgotten."

"Oh, well, I'm here." Anna said and put her hand on Elsa's shoulder. "And the chances of me leaving you are like the square root of negative one. Imaginary."

Anna just made another math pun. Elsa found it amusing to be honest, and she let out a small chuckle as a response. "Would you stop that?"

"No." Anna responded stubbornly with her chin up and her arms crossed over her chest. "It'll be like pi. It goes on forever."

"Those puns are like the square root of two. Irrational." Elsa replied playfully and Anna's grin stretched to her ears.

"See, I've got you playing along!" Anna said triumphantly, gently nudging Elsa with her shoulder.

"I've got nothing more when it comes to puns."

"Come on, someone who knows a lot about math doesn't have any more math puns?"

"I've got nothing left."

Together, they sat in the silence of the afternoon. The cool and gentle winter breeze blew on their faces, a calm chill spreading across their skin. Birds were chirping somewhere in the distance and the sky was painted a nice, picturesque shade of blue – a shade of blue that matched Anna's eyes. The perfect shade of blue.

"Hey Elsa?"

"Hmm?"

"Remember that day?" Anna asked and Elsa furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Which one? There are a lot of days."

"That one, the one when I first asked you to be my tutor." Anna replied and Elsa reminisced to that day when Anna came up to her, repeatedly jabbing an indignant finger at her arm. A gesture she found to be annoying at first, but then she eventually regarded the act as a set of playful pokes from a bubbly and playful redhead.

"Yes, you were an annoying brat back then." Elsa stated and Anna puffed her cheeks. "Always buzzing around like an annoying insect, asking for help repeatedly even after the many times I shut you out."

"Yeah, but you still agreed." Anna pointed out.

"Initially to make you stop bothering me."

"Initially?" Anna raised her eyebrows and her tone of voice questioningly.

"Well, over time, I may or may not have learned to like you."

"So it's not just me who learned something?"

"That's how it seems."

Another extended moment of silence. The tranquil and quiet atmosphere was calming, and that added to Anna's presence, Elsa has found peace for even a bit. Her thoughts moved to Anna. She wasn't the same emotional wreck she was last Sunday, or last week for that matter. Here she was, a happy, optimistic redhead, always smiling, always laughing, always happy like she hadn't a care in the world. But underneath that shell of enthusiasm, Elsa knew that Anna was still hurting from the loss of her parents, but she didn't show it. Perhaps it was humor to hide the pain. Or maybe she has found a way to control her pain and she has finally managed to let go and move on.

Elsa was more than okay to see her like this, always happy, always smiling.

"You know," Anna began and Elsa broke from her state of thought, "I've noticed something about you."

"Hm? What's that?"

Anna reached down and scooped up some snow with her hand and packed it into a snowball. The sunlight bounced off of the crystals of ice in the snow, giving it a sparkling appearance like it was sprinkled with a small amount of glitter. "You're no ice queen. Not anymore at least."

"Not an ice queen anymore, eh?" Elsa asked.

"Yeah. You're not the hard and cold girl that I was met with in day one." Anna answered and tossed the snowball into the air, only to catch it again. "You've softened and warmed up towards people. You're opening up again."

"The last time that happened-" Elsa began but was cut off by Anna.

"And that won't happen again. Trust me. I'm right here beside you and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." The redhead said to reassure her, and Elsa calmed a bit.

"Okay then, continue."

"As I was saying," Anna said and cleared her throat, "You're not an ice queen anymore. You're still a queen, your majesty, don't get me wrong. Just not an ice queen."

"'Your Majesty?'" Elsa said, an eyebrow raised in question. "I like the sound of that."

"You're now a lot like a…" Anna tossed the snowball once more and caught it again. She then offered the snowball to Elsa, who held it in one hand for her other hand was still in Anna's grip. "Snow Queen."

"Snow Queen, hm?"

"Yeah, you're like snow." Anna said. "You're fun, cold, but not too cold, just the right amount of cold. You're… as white as the driven snow, and most of all, you're loving and gentle."

Elsa grinned and she leaned over to press a kiss to Anna's forehead. "Really? A snow queen?"

"Well," Anna pulled Elsa into a gentle hug. "You're soft, just like snow. That's something I could add to the list that tells you why you're better off as a snow queen."

Elsa chuckled as they pulled away from the embrace. Anna pulled out a note from her bag and handed it to Elsa. "Can you just solve this problem for me? Please?"

Elsa took the note and opened it. It had an inequality written on it. "Didn't you already know how to do inequalities?"

"Come on, please?" Anna was doing the thing with the eyes and the pout – and Elsa couldn't find the will to say no.

"Fine. Just because you said please." Elsa said and put the note in her lap and she rummaged in her bag for a pen. She fished one out and uncapped it and began to work on the equation written on the square note.

Elsa, _9x–7i 3(3x–7u)  
_Elsa_, 9x-71 9x-21u_  
Elsa, _9x-9x-71 -21u_  
Elsa, _-7i -21u_  
Elsa, _-i -3u_

Elsa, I 3 u

Elsa grinned as she read the note. "That is perhaps the cheesiest equation I have ever seen." Anna laughed as well, and before they knew it, their faces were nearing each other, and soon, their lips pressed against each other in a kiss.

And both of them wished that it could stay like this for forever.

* * *

**-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- END -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-**

* * *

_**A/N: I wish I could have made this chapter longer…**_

**Hey there. I'm sorry this was late, the words just stopped flowing so I decided to get some me time for a bit. And without my knowing, that break which was intended to be short extended itself by days. But, that aside, I'd like to say thanks.**

**So, I guess this is it. The end of this story. I had fun writing these 16 chapters and I would have written more, but unfortunately, that's as much as I can muster for this particular one. But hey, maybe in the future, I'd write a one-shot series that further on this one. Maybe.**

**So, I'd like to thank you guys for reading, favorite-ing, following, and reviewing my fic. In all honesty, I never expected this to reach 500 followers. But it did. And you have my deepest thanks. Seeing you like what I write through follow or review never fails to put a smile on my face. And you leaving a nice review even if I write a completely shit chapter reassures me because there are just times in which I feel like a failure of a writer. The criticism also helped me in more ways than one. So again, thank you.**

**Thank you for reading my fanfic, I had fun writing this and I hope you had fun reading it. Thank you for being a such a great audience.**

**:+:+:+: ExiXIII :+:+:+:**


End file.
